Arsene Wenger has regurgitated the same line about Mesut Ozil being 100% committed to Arsenal following the recent speculation over the 29-year-old’s move to Manchester United.
The most recent rumour is that Ozil has been strutting around London Colney telling his teammates that he’s off to Manchester to reunite with Jose Mourinho, who was his boss at Real Madrid and is famously a big fan of the playmaker.
However, Wenger’s not having any of it.
“No,” the boss said when asked about the reports. “We have to deal with all kinds of speculation when the players are at the end of their contracts.
“On the other hand, to be professional is to give 100% as long as you are somewhere. For the rest, we came out many times and said that’s the situation. It [the media] can come out tomorrow and say that he extends his contract here. It will be exactly the same, it will not change anything. When you play the next game, commit 100%.”
Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are both down to the final year of their Arsenal contracts and while we always pretty much knew that the Chilean was off, the German’s potential departure is a bit hard to take. It looked as if he wanted to stay. At least that’s what he said in pre-season. And while some Gooners are fed up with the midfielder’s lack of assists, most still love him.
If United are genuinely interested in Ozil, I imagine the Gunners will cash in and sell him to the highest bidder in January rather than give him to a direct rival for free.
One day he’s reportedly renewing his executive box at the Emirates, the next he’s allegedly telling teammates he’s off to United… what’s happened?