Emery under no pressure to pick Ozil despite wage
Coach holds talks with midfielder over his role German’s place was at risk before illness struck
Unai Emery will not come under pressure from the Arsenal board over his handling of Mesut Ozil.
The playmaker missed Arsenal’s victory against West Ham United at the weekend after informing head coach Emery he was ill on Friday.
Despite Emery’s insistence there is no problem between the pair, sources insist there was a conversation regarding Ozil’s role within the team and that he could have been dropped after being substituted in the defeat by Chelsea.
Ozil now faces a fight to win his place back, but Emery will receive the full backing of his bosses over any decision he makes – even though the former Real Madrid midfielder is the club’s highest earner on £350,000 a week.
Arsenal gave Ozil his new contract only in January and will be well aware that his value will depreciate if he is left on the substitutes’ bench or in the stands, but Emery is under no pressure to play him. While Emery shares transfer responsibilities at Arsenal, he is in charge of the squad and will not allow any player to weaken his authority.
That was not the case at Emery’s last club, Paris St-germain, where Neymar’s position caused him problems following the Brazilian’s world-record move from Barcelona. Emery was forced to concede Neymar was the most powerful man at PSG, but has already made it clear that no Arsenal player, including Ozil, will call the shots at the Emirates.
After his departure from PSG was announced, Emery said: “I know when I am the principal person in the group and when I am not. At PSG, the leader is Neymar. At Manchester City, it’s Pep Guardiola.
“My priority was to make Neymar happy, it didn’t matter how. Neymar arrived in order to be the leader, to live the necessary process to become No1 in the world.
“I had a lot of discussions with Neymar about this. Sometimes the talks did not work, other times they were very successful.
“During one of them, we spoke for 45 minutes heart to heart. It was a magnificent moment. He listened to me and I convinced him of certain things but it is a process, one that will make him the best.”
It now remains to be seen whether Ozil is willing to take Emery’s concerns about his work-rate on board and adapt to the methods of his head coach.
If he does, then it is understood that Ozil can still play an important role for Emery. If not, it seems certain he will be dropped.