Mesut Ozil has been in the headlines again recently after he was excluded from the Fenerbahce squad last week. The former Arsenal player left for Turkey only 14 months ago and a verbal altercation with interim manager Ismail Kartal was cited as the reason for the exclusion by football.london.
The German international has played 32 times for the Istanbul based club but that could come to an end should Kartal be given the job on a permanent basis.
In light of the situation, Ozil’s former teammate Nacho Monreal spoke about the midfielder’s time at Arsenal to FourFourTwo, with the Spanish defender saying that Ozil’s problem was that he “had problems with everyone.”
The full-back went on to say: “It ended badly with Wenger, he didn’t play the last few games with him, then Emery tried to bring him back and make him our leader. To begin with, he gave him a lot of confidence and Mesut played a lot, but the coach understood there were other teammates who were in better condition.
“Ozil was one of the best players in the team, one of the best paid, but they saw he wasn’t at the level required. As a person, he was good with everyone, but he also missed a lot of games through injury.”
Monreal suggests that the lack of game-time for Ozil spilled over into other problems, which ended up causing tension around the club.
Ozil played 184 times for Arsenal since joining in 2013 and went on to be one of the club’s best players of the last decade, but just like Monreal suggests with the other two Arsenal managers, the German did not get on great with the current manager Mikel Arteta either and was subsequently sold by the Spaniard.
This has since proven to be the right decision by the current Arsenal boss, as the Gunners have kicked on ever since and are now playing some of the best football the club has seen for a while, with Martin Odegaard thriving in the former Arsenal number ten’s position.
Ozil will find it hard to find a club if he is sold in the summer as a result of the stories that have come to the surface about his attitude. It is such a shame considering how good this man used to be.