Wenger reveals why it was important to give Ozil a bumper deal

Mesut Ozil signed new deal in the 2018 January transfer window and he is reportedly earning £350k a week wages, making him Arsenal’s highest paid player. Arsene Wenger who was the manager of Arsenal at that time convinced the club to give Mesut Ozil that deal and the German international said that the Frenchman is one of the reasons why he stayed. This deal has brought a lot of controversy because Arsenal’s new head coach Unai Emery has not been using Mesut Ozil in all matches yet he is the highest paid player at the Emirates Stadium.

There are many theories as to why Arsenal’s new boss Unai Emery is not playing Mesut Ozil but some Arsenal fans believe that this is an instruction from his bosses to freeze out the German international from the squad so that he gets the desire to leave the Emirates Stadium because they want to cut on their wage bill. Arsene Wenger was like a father to Mesut Ozil in the five years he spent in London but the French coach had never intentionally left the 30-year-old out of match day squads because he used to trust him so much.

Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was yesterday given a Laureus lifetime achievement award and he used that opportunity to talk about the situation that saw the gunners offer Mesut Ozil a new bumper deal. The Frenchman says that it was better to renew the contract than to go and sign a new player of his calibre who would be expensive.

“He (Ozil) has a contract but the problem is that if you want to buy a player like him you have to spend £100million.” said Wenger.

“To buy players of top, top quality you need £100m. So the decision you have to make is whether you re-sign the player, who costs us nothing, or do we have the money to buy a new player?”