Emery wants Ozil exit to free up funds
ARSENAL manager Unai Emery wants the club to find an exit route for Mesut Ozil before the end of the January transfer window to free up funds to sign his own players. Arsenal have taken only two points from their last five Premier League away games and Emery’s decision to leave Ozil out of the squad entirely against West Ham — while including teenager Eddie Nketiah — raised eyebrows further. It was a pointed instruction to the club’s board that, as far as Emery is concerned, the German is dispensable. Arsenal are still to receive credible interest for the player, who does not want to go on loan and whose £350,000-a-week salary deters potential buyers. Emery has an agreement with Barcelona’s Denis Suarez but the Catalan club are stalling over a loan deal as they want a commitment from Arsenal to buy the player in the summer, something the Londoners are refusing to do. Emery’s trust in Ozil is now non-existent. Earlier in the season, Ozil’s absence at home against West Ham was put down to illness. This was despite the player mingling in the Arsenal dressing room for an hour before the game. In November, Emery cited ‘physicality and intensity’ when Ozil was left out at Bournemouth. Here, Emery said: ‘The players who were here were the ones who deserved to be at this match. Sometimes he is helping us, at other moments not helping us because of injury or because maybe the match is not for him.’ Sokratis Papastathopoulos hinted that the dressing room might be behind Ozil when the defender said the team lacked quality in the final third, on a day Arsenal had only two shots on target. ‘It is not about the two shots on target. Look at how many chances we would have had if we had done better with the last pass. This is the problem.’ Emery conceded that his team’s chance of finishing in the top four is dwindling. ‘Now it’s more difficult, it’s clear. The most important thing for us is to recover our confidence.’