STAN COLLYMORE

The notion that clubs who have made a lot of cash over the years are going to their players to ask for a prop-up is complete and utter nonsense

I know some of you will disagree. Some of you will say: ‘Hang on, Stan, I earn £350 a week and have been forced to take a 10 per cent pay-cut without any say in it, so why can’t he take a cut on his £350,000 a week? I’ll miss £35 a lot more than he’ll miss £35,000, and Arsenal have offered to pay him back twice what he has given up if the club qualifies for the Champions League, so if he pulls his finger out on the field he’ll be even better remunerated.’

But if your employers are worth £8bn and you had a watertight contract, as footballers do, then would you really accept their cry for help?

Players’ wages are agreed when they sign their contracts and bonus structures are agreed at the start of each season, so you can’t just change them willy-nilly – it would lead to anarchy.

Let’s say Arsenal were sixth with two games to go and Kroenke suddenly said: ‘Right, we’re going to take 25 per cent of your wages but we will give 50 per cent back if you qualify for the Champions League’.

There would be uproar. Remember as well that Ozil, who joined Arsenal from Real Madrid back in 2013, is German and doesn’t really give a damn about English football. Neither should he. It might be a bit more personal for him if it were Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, but just because we see players celebrating goals and living in our wealthy areas, we forget they are ultimately migrant workers who are here for a short time.

They come to live in our system, which tells its people to look after themselves.

That is what Ozil is doing and it’s very difficult to slam him for it.