Jose’s silence was deafening for Ozil...
“I THINK in attack it’s very difficult for us to improve. Where are we going to get a better combination of players than we have?”
Just days after Jose Mourinho uttered those words, and confirmed that United had extended Juan Mata’s contract, news of Mesut Ozil’s new deal leaked out.
A contract worth £350,000-a-week before tax, for three-and-a-half years. These were the cold numbers that made big headlines on deadline day following months of speculation as Arsenal look to somehow save their season following another dismal defeat to Swansea on Tuesday night.
M.E.N. Sport revealed last month that Ozil had yet to sign a new deal because he wanted to see the Gunners’ ‘prospective’ and longterm plan. The club’s latest offer had been on the table since December following a previous nine-month breakdown in talks.
Ozil had originally been offered a bonus-laden contract, which was dependent on the Gunners getting into the semi-finals of major competitions, before eventually clinching a significant increase on his original £152,000-a-week salary.
Following the signings of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ozil blinked first after being met by a wall of silence when it came to his preferred move to United, Real Madrid or Barcelona where he was even prepared to initially sit on the bench.
Such was that lack of serious interest, Ozil’s camp repeatedly asked this correspondent if he had heard anything from United despite the player’s close relationship with Jose Mourinho.
The former Real Madrid manager only required two hours’ notice to write a foreword for Ozil’s autobiography and Mourinho would have only needed to text Ozil to convince him to stall on the deal or jump ship. But it never came to that.
When asked whether he was interested in a reunion with Ozil in December, Mourinho, smirking, replied: “No comment.” That was the closest we ever came to a direct link.
Mourinho may have made a habit of signing old favourites down through the years – from Ricardo Carvalho to Nemanja Matic – but he is not about to stockpile his squad with reminders of past glories.
City will surely continue to outspend United in the summer and Mourinho has to be doubly smart with every penny he spends, making Ozil the club’s highest earner ahead of Alexis Sanchez would have been a dangerous move.
The form of Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata, who have both been awarded new deals in the last nine months, has certainly been a factor, too, as has the signing of Sanchez.
It left Ozil with little choice with just a few months left on his contract. In signing his last big deal in Europe, the German wanted a long-term plan, particularly after Arsenal’s shock FA Cup exit to Nottingham Forest and Sanchez’s departure to United last month. Contrary to popular belief, money was not the only factor behind Ozil’s decision. It is understood that the 29-year-old even turned down a ‘staggering’ offer from an unnamed club in China before finally putting pen to paper on a new deal at the Emirates. Time will tell whether it was a wise decision. Ciaran Kelly