Reports on Thursday claimed that Mesut Ozil held transfer talks with Fenerbache over a move to the Turkish club, so what’s going on?

If you just read the headlines you’re probably thinking that the talks were a recent thing, connected to Mesut Ozil’s current Arsenal contract, but they weren’t.

They happened last summer.

This most recent story, which was published on the Turkish site, Hurriyet, was quickly picked up and spread around the internet. Their piece is based on the assertions of a journalist, Ahmet Ercan, who claims that the player spent a total of 17 hours in Istanbul and held a ‘secret meeting’ with Fenerbahce. He then states that Ozil will ‘surely’ wear the Fener shirt in the coming years.

Ozil has never made any secret of his desire to play for Fener one day or that he was in Istanbul last summer (he even posted a picture on his Instagram of him in the city) and I see no problem in him having a chat with them while he’s on holiday.

Players talk about ‘future’ clubs all the time, generally the type of club they would never play for at their peak.

https://www.instagram.com/p/5aMqf0Qs47/

I’ve also got every faith that Arsenal were aware of any conversation and that Ozil has no intention of leaving to join Fenerbahce until the end of the new contract he will sign with Arsenal this season.