According to an exclusive report from the Mirror, superstar Mesut Ozil is one of three Arsenal players to have rejected the club’s proposal to take a 12.5% wage cut.
The World Cup winner is the north London outfit’s highest earner, pocketing a reported £350,000-a-week. The attacking midfielder put pen to paper on the marquee deal just over two years ago.
The Mirror claim that Ozil has made it ‘clear’ that he’d be willing to help the club by taking this measure in the future, with the ace unwilling to ‘rush’ into a decision.
It’s added that the 31-year-old would like to see the ‘full financial impact’ that the Coronavirus pandemic has before rethinking his stance on the matter.
The Mirror report that Ozil’s agent, Dr Erkut Sogut and Arsenal both declined to comment when approached on the matter.
Arsenal announced that the proposed wage cut would come into effect his month. The Gunners are the first Premier League club to agree to wage cuts with their players.
Whilst some may find it easy to slam Ozil for his stance, the Mirror’s Alex Richards reminded fans to consider the playmaker’s charitable nature before making judgement:
Ozil spent much of the last decade donating millions to charity and helping causes in the UK, Germany, Turkey & elsewhere. Paid to feed 100k homeless in refugee camps on his wedding day. Surely it's fair enough that he wants to make a more informed decision? https://t.co/HUhxV3AItO
— Alex Richards (@AA_Richards) April 20, 2020
The Mirror claim that the 12.5% cut will last for 12 months until next March. The report claims that the players can make this money back if they qualify for the Champions League either this season or next.
Should the Gunners seal a place in Europe’s elite club competition during this two-season period, the 12.5% of wages that were cut will be returned to players – as well as a £100,000 bonus.
If Mikel Arteta’s side make the Europa League, they will receive 7.5% back, no European football at all will lead to the players getting back nothing.
It’s hard to give our opinion on the matter with neither the club or players like Ozil revealing whether they were in favour or not – and we don’t expect players to come out and reveal this either as it as matter relating to their personal finances.
It’s also surprising to see that Ozil has been named as one of the men to take this stance considering that the Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed that only two players rejected the wage cut earlier today.
In a matter of hours it’s now being reported that three members of the squad rejected this proposal and that Ozil is one of them.
It also seems unfair that only Ozil has been named, the other two who took this position remain unknown.
Players who are reported to have rejected taking a cut to their salaries may have every right to for their own personal reasons.
We’d like to reserve judgement on the matter until there is official comment from those involved.