Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Conceded Nothing In Contract Discussions
Arsenal absolutely must lock up Mesut Ozil for the long haul, but when the German ‘opened up’ about contract talks, he didn’t really give us anything.
There is pretty much only one thing on every Arsenal supporter’s mind right now: Will Alexis and Mesut Ozil ink new contracts anytime soon or will we be subjected to the torture of waiting until who even knows when?
Speculation has been running wild. Some are saying that they both want release clauses, which the club is unlikely to give. Most do agree on the fact that contract negotiations are under way and when asked about it, Mesut Ozil confirmed. But he did very little else.
His words, via SkySports:
“We have had discussions, but they were suspended for the European Championship. I wanted to focus at this time only on the national team. Now we look to continue the negotiations.”
This is good news. You can’t sign a contract if you don’t talk about it. Yet anyone looking for reassurance or a hint of what he was leaning towards had best look elsewhere. It’s clear that the German maestro has some pretty standard lines that he uses every time he is asked about his future.
“In football, you can never say never. You don’t know what will happen,” he said. He went on to say how he would love to go to MLS and play in Los Angeles, as he loves the city, but that was simply following being pressed about if he would ever do such a thing. He gave us very little else to work with.
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He didn’t even give us anything to read into. The first time he used the lines ‘you never know’, I was nervy. It sounded like he didn’t want to commit his future. But now that it looks like his ‘prerecorded’ line, we really can’t read into it after all.
We do know that Ozil is happy here. He has made that perfectly clear every chance he gets. I know I beat this point dead, but I am still impressed by how he made a point to alter his body language so that he would come off more positive and less mopey. That is a big thing for a superstar like Ozil to consciously alter himself so that the fan base can see that he is trying and he is happy.
Beyond that, we have no reason to doubt Ozil’s long term dedication to the cause. While it might be unrealistic to expect him to retire a Gunner, as he will probably pull a Pirlo and cross over to the U.S.A. when the time comes, it is definitely realistic to think that he will sign a new contract. Especially in light of the new ambition that Wenger showed in the summer and with Shkodran Mustafi’s arrival.
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