Mesut Ozil will reportedly receive a loyalty bonus should he see out the full five years of his current Arsenal contract.

The loyalty clause was no doubt put in Mesut Ozil’s last Arsenal contract to try and entice him to stay for the duration of it. If that was the goal, it certainly worked.

To be fair to Ozil, he has stayed loyal to the club even if the same cannot be said in reverse. Mesut Ozil did not exclude himself from selection and then from the Premier League and Europa League squads. I don’t even think Mikel Arteta excluded him, given that the Spaniard picked the player he said he wanted to build his team around for every game before the lockdown.

Whatever the truth of what happened at Arsenal, there will be fans annoyed that the club will have to pay something they agreed to pay. It’s even more ridiculous when you consider Arsenal are also paying so much every week for a player they flat out refuse to play.

You cannot look at this Arsenal side and think Ozil isn’t good enough for it. ‘Footballing reasons’ was never a plausible excuse for what has happened and it’s downright laughable as Arsenal languish in 15th place in the league, heading towards Christmas neither able to create or finish.

If the manager was anyone other than Mikel Arteta, we would be screaming for his head.

Anyway, Arsenal will try to shift Ozil on in January, he’ll refuse to go and then, finally, summer will roll around, Ozil will get his bonus and, perhaps more importantly, he will get to go somewhere and play actual football while Arsenal can put the whole saga behind them.