OZIL: I’VE NO PLANS TO LEAVE

ARSENAL STAR HINTS REFUSAL TO TAKE PAY CUT HAS FROZEN HIM OUT

MESUT OZIL has reiterated his intention to see out his contract at Arsenal and hinted his absence from the team may have been caused by his refusal to take a pay cut.

The German is into the final year of his £350,000-a-week contract and the Gunners are keen to offload him this summer and ease the financial burden of his wages.

Ozil,however,w ants too stay, despite not playing a minute ute since football restarted d in June. “My position is clear ,” Ozil(right)t old The Athletic. “I’m here through to the last day of our agreement and I’ll give everything I have for this s club.

“I showed in the past I can come back into the team and I will show it again. I’ll decide when I go, not other people. I didn’t sign for two or three years, I signed for four and that should be respected by everyone.”

Before the football shutdown in March, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ozil was a regular under head coach Mikel Arteta and the attacking midfielder has questioned whether his recent absence from the team may be linked to his refusal to take a pay cut. In April, Arsenal players and staff agreed to a 12.5 per cent wage reduction — which was lowered to 7.5 per cent when the Gunners qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup — over the next 12 months, while the club’s executive team agreed to waive more than a third of their salaries.

Ozil did not agree to a cut, though, citing a lack of information about where the money saved would be going. T That became a huge talking poin point last week, after Arsenal a announced plans to make 55 staff redundant because of the financial impact of the pandemic.

“It was far too quick for s something so important and th there was a lot of pressure,” Ozi Ozil added. “This was not fair, especially i for the young guys, and I refused.

“People who know me know exactly how generous I am and, as far as I’m aware, I was not the only player who rejected the cut in the end, but only my name came out.

“I guess that’s because it is me and people have been trying for two years to destroy me, to make me unhappy, to

push an agenda they hope will turn the supporters against me and paint a picture that is not true.

“Possibly the decision affected my chances on the pitch, I don’t know. But I’m not afraid to stand up for what I feel is right — and when you see what has happened now with the jobs, maybe I was.”

Ozil’s recent absence from the team was due to a back problem, but he insists he is now fully fit and ready to start pre-season with Arsenal on August 24.

“I was fit enough to play every game before the break and, apart from a small injury, it was the same after,” said the 31-year-old.

“Mikel knows my quality and I will be ready when he needs me. I’m not going into pre-season thinking, ‘Final year, I can chill — I know I don’t play’. These are not easy times for Arsenal and I want to help.

“People will always love or hate you, and the main thing is the people who know you and what they think. What the people outside say about my play or my character is irrelevant.

“Do it as much as you like. I don’t care, or listen to people who don’t know me. I didn’t get here because of them.”