Former Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal has revealed that ex-teammate Mesut Ozil used to have problems with everyone towards the end of his Gunners career.
The German has been in the headlines once again recently after Fenerbahce released a statement last week confirming that they had excluded him from the squad. Despite only joining the club last season, the midfielder has had plenty of issues with the Turkish side but being cut from the squad caps off what has been a torrid 14 months for Ozil.
A verbal altercation with interim manager Ismail Kartal was cited as the reason for the exclusion from the team by football.london. It remains to be seen whether it now means that the 33-year-old will be sold in the summer if Kartal is given the job on a permanent basis.
But clubs may be unlikely to be all that eager to sign Ozil given that his attitude has been questioned during his time at Fenerbahce, and because the former Real Madrid star can cause unrest behind the scenes, according to Monreal. Speaking about the midfielder’s time at Arsenal to FourFourTwo, the Spanish defender said: “Ozil’s problem is that he had problems with everyone.
“It ended badly with Wenger, he didn’t play the last few games with him, then Emery tried to bring him back and make him our leader. To begin with, he gave him a lot of confidence and Mesut played a lot, but the coach understood there were other teammates who were in better condition.”
The Real Sociedad left-back continued: “Ozil was one of the best players in the team, one of the best paid, but they saw he wasn’t at the level required. As a person, he was good with everyone, but he also missed a lot of games through injury.”
One of Mikel Arteta’s most significant decisions since taking over as Gunners boss was freezing Ozil out of the squad and eventually releasing him. Reports have spoken about the ill-feeling from the player to the manager previously, but Arteta had a no-nonsense approach with the midfielder and wasn’t happy with how he was performing both on and off the pitch.
In hindsight, the move by the Spanish boss has certainly benefitted Arsenal as they now have a squad with an aura of youth confidence and aspirations of improving and going to the very top. Monreal’s comments certainly suggest that it would be tricky for Arteta to create that sort of dressing room with individuals like Ozil still in and amongst the squad.
The Gunners spent approximately £150million over the summer to sign players all aged 24 and under in a bid to add a sprinkling of quality to the team in their bid to re-establish themselves as a top-four club. And the North London outfit could be just as busy in the transfer market at the end of the season as they will be in the market for a new striker, with Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah both set to leave the club in the summer when their contracts expire.
