Mesut Ozil's agent Erkut Sogut insists that his client would have been happy to take a pay cut at Arsenal if only he'd known where the money was going.
The German international was frozen out by Mikel Arteta during his final season at the club, but prior to that the entire first-team squad had been asked to take a 15 per cent pay cut due to the financial impact of the pandemic, with the majority of the players eventually agreeing on 12.5 per cent.
Ozil was not among their number though, with the playmaker subsequently criticised by many as his stock among fans and with Arteta fell dramatically.
At the same time, the Gunners were widely criticised for making 55 staff redundant, with Ozil speaking up and pledging to pay the wages of long-term club employee Jerry Quy, who played the role of mascot Gunnersaurus on matchdays as well as undertaking a number of community-based roles.
Speaking to Arsenal Fan TV, Sogut suggested that Ozil's rejection was nothing to do with greed, and instead was purely to do with his desire for the club to protect their employees.
"With the salary cut, he asked me ‘Where is the money going?’," said Sogut.
"Mesut wanted assurances from the club that they wouldn’t fire anyone. That management would have a salary cut too.
"If that assurance was given and signed, he would have taken more of a cut. Thirty per cent. He wanted to know where the money was going.
"If it was to buy another player, he didn’t want to do it. If it was to secure the workplace, he wanted to do it."
After being excluded from Arteta's Premier League squad last season, Ozil eventually joined Fenerbahce in January 2021, although his time there hasn't gone to plan and he was suspended by the club last week.
Despite his recent issues and certain accusations, Sogut insists that Ozil's heart has always been in the right place.
"From the first moment I worked with Mesut, whenever I asked for a charitable project, he never said no," he said.
"He grew up in a very poor background, with his mum and dad going to work doing cleaning. He wasn’t from a good financial background. Football was the exit from that.
"His mum brought something to his house in London. It says ‘My son, you are gifted by God. If you don’t share this with people in need, you are not my son.’
"So this boy has the mentality of sharing. We used our box at the Emirates for kids with cancer. Every home game. He started a relationship with these kids. He was always giving."
