David Ornstein has revealed that some of the Arsenal hierarchy ‘regret’ giving Mesut Ozil his mega contract although it’s not clear who he is talking about.

The Ornacle was speaking on BBC Five Live about Aaron Ramsey’s current situation when he mentioned the German’s mega-deal. He claimed that some of the Arsenal hierarchy did not want to repeat the same ‘mistake’ they made with Ozil by handing Ramsey a huge pay rise.

Less than a year ago we all wondered if Mesut Ozil would still be an Arsenal player in 2018.

After being made the club’s highest ever paid player, the men who sanctioned Ozil’s latest contract are gone from the club and the German keeps vanishing.

Unai Emery has been as frank as he seems capable of being when he said he expects Ozil to work harder. We can read nothing into Emery making Ozil one of his five captains because he did the same with Aaron Ramsey whom we all know is set for an exit.

Arsenal need to cut their wage bill – that’s why they are letting Ramsey go. Any new deal for the Welshman would come with a hefty increase on his weekly salary while a large signing-on bonus is also required. The club can’t afford it.

Can they, then, afford to pay Ozil £350,000-per-week for the next 130 weeks?

Of course, questions need to be asked about why the club would sanction the deal in the first place if they were not prepared to commit to it for its duration or if they knew they couldn’t afford it.

Desperation seems the obvious answer given the state of the club at the time, the unrest amongst fans and the fact that Alexis Sanchez was off to Manchester United.

They could afford to lose Ozil last January less than they could afford his wages it seems. Arsene Wenger’s last hurrah in his attempts to turn things around and get the fans back on side.

Moving Ozil up to the £300kpw bracket has reduced the number of clubs now able to pay his wages to around five (Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG). From that list perhaps only one or two would consider signing him at that price (United and PSG).

In short, if Arsenal weren’t intending on keeping him, they’ve made it very difficult to get rid.

But who do you ask these questions of?

Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis are gone and you’ll have to go some way to convince me Stan Kroenke could pick the midfielder out of a lineup. Kroenke and the board, paralysed by Wenger’s reputation for so long, trusted the Frenchman’s opinion. Wenger wanted to re-sign him, and, along with Gazidis, they all signed off on the deal.

78 days later Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving.

As much as I love the German, it does feel as if something has to give and it looks like it could be his place in the squad.

If Arsenal can find a willing buyer, that is.