Arsenal manager hints at Bale link with Ozil signing.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hinted that Real Madrid’s £85m signing of Gareth Bale from Tottenham this summer may have helped the Gunners to land Mesut Ozil.
Speaking to the club’s official site, Wenger was keen to point out that Arsenal’s spending of £42.4m on the German international shows the financial strength of the club now after seven years at the Emirates Stadium, which the club had to take out enormous loans to build.
But Wenger also feels that a player as good as Ozil being allowed to leave the Spanish giants may have been to do with the amount of money spent on bringing Bale to the club, as well as the fact that the Welshman plays in a similar position to Arsenal’s new signing.
Ozil spent three years at the Bernabeu after arriving from Werder Bremen in 2010, and had become one of the club’s most important players in his time in La Liga, but was seemingly surplus to requirements under new manager Carlo Ancelotti this year, following the arrival of Bale and also of Isco from Malaga, another attacking midfielder.
“We had to go through some years when I signed a long-term contract where we had some restricted financial potential,” Wenger explained. “And the target was to stay in the Champions League in this period and we managed to do it. We are now in a strong position financially.
“Honestly I think it (Ozil’s sale) was linked with the Bale transfer,” he continued. “I don’t know exactly what happened inside the club in Madrid. Was it down to financial reasons? Was it down to the fact that when they bought Bale they had Isco and they had to let somebody go? I was surprised, yes.”
Wenger has also hinted that Ozil could be set to make his debut for the club in this weekend’s visit to Sunderland.