Ex-Galatasaray footballer Erdal Kesser has spoken out against comments from Germany business manager Oliver Bierhoff on Mesut Özil, branding them ‘pathetic’.

For those who haven’t been following the story, Özil initially landed in hot water over a photo with Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was heavily criticised and booed by some Germany supporters in the aftermath.

Then, Germany crashed out of the tournament early. Needing a scapegoat, Bierhoff took advantage of Özil’s situation to shift the blame onto the 29-year-old.

“We have never forced players of the German national squad to do something, but always tried to convince them of a cause,” he said, in reference to their attempts to get Özil to apologise. “We did not succeed with Mesut.

“In that respect, considerations should have been made about whether to leave out Özil from a sporting point of view.”

Clearly, Özil’s presence in the Germany team isn’t the main reason why they lost against South Korea and Mexico. Most Germany sides from the last decade could probably have managed at least a couple of draws in those matches with 10 men.

Keser spoke out against the ‘cheap’ comments from Bierhoff, that the DFB are seemingly okay with their staff making.

“I think it’s pathetic,” Keser told Sport1. “That may sound bad, but what Bierhoff did was below the belt. It is not fair if the struggles at the World Cup are tied to these players (Özil and Gundogan) and the DFB allows that to happen, or fuels it. That would be cheap.”

In an era where there’s a media circus when the FA Twitter account make a joke about Harry Kane, it’s certainly surprising that the DFB allow their business manager to scapegoat one of their own players.

The DFB should be the ones speaking out against Bierhoff’s comments, not former Galatasaray players.

Hopefully Özil can put this ridiculous saga out of his mind now, and return to Arsenal to focus on football again.