Mesut Ozil should be sold or made to take a massive pay cut

Mesut Ozil joined Arsenal from Real Madrid in 2013 for a then club record fee of £45m.

Ozil became Arsenal’s highest paid player ever in February 2018 when he signed a new contract worth £350,000 a-week.

It is no doubt that he has been an influential player at Arsenal scoring 44 goals and providing 77 assists in over 200 appearances and being dubbed the”king of assists”.

However for the past 2 or so seasons his career has been declining as he was constantly left out of the team by former head coach Unai Emery for “tactical reasons”

Ozil has been suffering from a persistent back problem and in the past it was linked to his addiction to popular video game Fortnite.

After being shut out of Unai Emery’s plans in the first half of the 2019-20 campaign, Ozil was restored to the starting line-up when Mikel Arteta took over in December.

The German midfielder showed flashes of his best form as Arsenal made an unbeaten start to 2020, but the coronavirus outbreak disrupted his progress.

Ozil has not played a single minute of football since the restart with Arteta publicly suggesting that the 31-year-old’s fitness levels have fallen below the required standard.

Given his reported £350,000 in weekly wages, and the fact he has sat out the Gunners’ last seven matches, questions are again being asked over his future at the Emirates Stadium.

With his contract expiring next year it might be time to sell him for a fee around £15-20m and free up the wage bill and use those funds to finance new players or players such as Aubameyang who are more productive.

Ozil’s departure would be good for both parties as he could revive his career elsewhere before he retires.

Although if Arteta still has Ozil in his future plans he might consider making him take a pay cut of more than 50% of his current wages.