Mesut Özil's groundhog act ensures Arteta's plan for Arsenal remains cloudy
Mesut Özil retains his unnatural gift for dominating Arsenal’s narrative. This may yet be the week when, in announcing the signing of Willian and confirming Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has signed his new contract, they take their first clear steps towards rebounding from a tormented season and showing their intent to progress under Mikel Arteta. But Özil’s most recent intervention, stating in an interview that he has no desire to depart, brought back into focus a long-standing and expensive problem that is no nearer to resolution.
Arsenal already have a battle to master the optics given, for all the relief Aubameyang’s retention in particular would give those whose only care is for the football, the imminent deals will cost more than £400,000 a week combined. That may look conservative when bonuses are factored in. They come at a time when 55 staff elsewhere in the club are subject to proposed redundancy; if Özil sticks around for the final year of his contract, keeping another £350,000 on the weekly wage bill, the picture looks even more warped.
That would particularly be the case if Özil does not contribute on the pitch. “I’ll decide when I go, not other people,” he said, emphasising he intends to stay until next summer. And he intends to regain his place in Arteta’s team, promising: “I showed in the past that I can come back ... and I will show it again.”
Özil has certainly clawed his way back before. Last season he played only once in the Premier League before November, eventually salvaging Unai Emery’s trust to some degree and continuing as a regular under Arteta. But his absence after the restart felt different, more pointed. While Arteta began to instil an identity in a squad of modest talent, Özil remained on the sidelines.
When Aubameyang brilliantly won them the FA Cup, the playmaker was far away in Turkey. In the season’s final fortnight, with Özil available after an absence attributed to back soreness, the youngster Matt Smith took the ninth place on Arsenal’s bench. Smith did not play a minute and watched on as, in one of the worst performances of Arteta’s short tenure, Arsenal struggled to make chances during a costly defeat at Villa Park.
After Arteta was confronted with the numbers: his team were 16th in the Premier League’s creativity table. “They don’t lie, those stats,” he said. But they did not irk him enough to recall Özil, once the division’s darling of assists, to a reshuffled side for the final match of the campaign against Watford.
There is no talking around it: Arsenal and Arteta would both, if there was a clean way to do it, cut ties with Özil and move on. The perfect scenario would be for a club in the US, where Özil has business interests, or perhaps Turkey to offer him a stage for the latter years of his career. He turns 32 in October and there is no shame in taking a step back at this stage of a footballing life that has, for all the sniping, largely been exceptional. Nor, on the other hand, is it a crime to see out a contract that was agreed in good faith by all parties. Given the latter looks increasingly likely to be Özil’s choice, Arteta has a delicate problem to deal with.
The Arsenal manager has three options. One is to ostracise Özil completely and, while the squad return to training, invite him to extend his break. Another – perhaps the most likely – would be to order Özil to train but confine him to the sidelines, despite regular public assurances that anyone who is “on the boat” may participate. The third would be to reintegrate him, giving Özil what he wants and the chance to graft for a starring role once again.
Given Willian, two months Özil’s senior, is being primed for a central playmaking position that final idea seems fantastical. Even with a shuffling of the pack to accommodate both, adding them to the 31-year-old Aubameyang hardly promotes the vigorous style Arteta preaches. There is no question Özil, at his peak, would have offered a between-the-lines threat Arsenal do not possess. But there is no indication any space will be made available.
In the same post-Villa conversation about their lack of spark, Arteta was asked about the challenge ahead. “Let’s analyse why things happen, and the things that are not working have to get changed,” he said. “If not, we are going to get back to the same spot in six months, a year, two years.” He was not speaking specifically about Özil, but might as well have been: the groundhog-day sensation, and the need for all involved to find a way out, is inescapable.
Özil was “disappointed” by Arsenal’s lack of support when he spoke in solidarity with the Uighur Muslims in China last December. He also pointed out this week that his decision not to take a pay cut in April, feeling the club were not clear about its wider benefits, may have been proved right by the subsequent job losses. It is hard to criticise him for seeking nuance in solving problems that have few easy solutions, and nobody can rely easily on absolutes when analysing the stand-off between himself and Arsenal.
The bunting will be hung out for Willian and the HR department will finesse their restructuring plans; Özil will still be in the background, occupying a state of limbo that satisfies nobody.