Arsenal: Mesut Ozil and my inability to decide

Mesut Ozil has, per Chris Wheatley of Goal, decided to cut short his holiday to return to the Arsenal squad. This just adds to the ambiguity of his character; I just can’t work out how committed he is.

Mesut Ozil is a divisive figure. The floating figure who drifts in between exquisite and exasperating has commanded belligerent an unrelenting debate. The truth, as is so often the case in these instances, rarely sees the surface, only gasping for air before being plunged into the depths of the murky waters. For it is difficult for one to simply make their mind up about the erratic, undulating Arsenal midfielder.

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The crux of the issue is a simple one: How much does he care? I’m not sure there are many who would doubt his ability, his caressing of the football, the creative turning of the cogs in his brain, the eye-bulging, field-piercing vision, the weight and wonder of his passing. He is a uniquely gifted individual.

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But he doesn’t always produce like one. And even more concerningly, he sometimes looks like he doesn’t want to produce like one. Shoulders slumped, head dragged to the ground as if there’s a pulled puppeteer angling it into the floor. It is a picture of disinterest that we are all familiar with. How can such a figure claim to share the same indeterminable, insatiable will to win as the chest-thumping captain or instruction-barking centre-back or rampage-tackling midfielder?

And yet, we then hear stories like this, from Chris Wheatley of Goal:

"“Playmaker Mesut Ozil even decided to cut his holiday short and make an early return after speaking to his team-mates about Emery’s training sessions.”"

How do the two coincide with one another?

It doesn’t quite seem logical. They seem as though they must be mutually exclusive. And to some extent, they are. Obviously, as humans, individuals go through fluctuating periods of motivation. It is not unusual for someone to be fired up one game only for their passion to have been doused by the time the next one rolls around.

But for Ozil, the languid, lethargic attitude that he exudes is not a temporary thing. It has been sustained and consistent throughout the five years that he has plied his trade in north London. That is not to say that he is those things, but over such an extended period, it is difficult to argue that he most definitely isn’t.

And then he cuts short his summer holiday to return to his team and work under his new manager. And then he is a competitive, professional footballer, working in a ‘job’ that millions of other kids could only dream of, a position that he would not be in if he wasn’t wholeheartedly driven. And then he is a World Cup winner, a La Liga winner, a multiple FA Cup winner, one of the best players of his generation.

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That is what drives the debate, this dichotomy between his pedigree and the picture he paints, the juxtaposition between what he has achieved and how he looks when he does it. It is what leads me to swing from one end of the argument to the other, and now, I don’t really know what to think about Ozil. And so, in that state of resignation and reservation, which is odd for someone whose job it is to provide opinion and comment, I will just sit and watch and hope that the very best of Ozil is still to come.