Now that Mesut Ozil has left Arsenal, it appears that a huge dark cloud has lifted from the club.
Whatever the whys and wherefores, there was clearly a reason why manager, Mikel Arteta, felt that the player wasn’t suitable to be part of his Premier League squad.
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However, the ensuing power grab, with Ozil preferring to twiddle his thumbs on a reported £350,000 per week rather than take his leave before the start of the 2020/21 campaign, hasn’t done anyone any favours.
It’s a situation that the Spaniard doesn’t want to see repeated any time soon.
“You don’t want to get into this position again, that’s for sure,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“Not for the player, not for the club. But it’s happening more and more at every club.
“You have to have that communication open, obviously to prevent it as much as possible and if they happen, just make a decision and don’t try to delay a situation that is not working for much longer.
“We are trying to create a really strong team with different qualities that hopefully is going to give us more sustainability and success in our decisions.
“Sometimes it’s impossible to see what’s going to happen in three years’ time. We tried to resolve those situations early in the summer, to try and avoid what we had but sometimes it’s not possible.
“This transfer window and the previous one were really complicated and I’d have to assume we have responsibility with those players and we have to respond to our obligations. That’s what we did until the moment we found a solution.”
Arteta can now concentrate solely on the squad that he is shaping in his own image, with a view to taking them forward and getting them back where they need to be.
If he’s still unable to do so, the blame will lie squarely on his shoulders and not potentially unresolvable situations that do nothing for team morale.