‘Ozil’s on £350,000 everyone hates him’

A former Arsenal star believes it will be tough to offload Mesut Ozil next season because of his big wages.

Mesut Ozil joined Arsenal when Arsene Wenger was manager in 2013

Despite the change in management, Ozil has not quite hit the heights this season and is once again being linked with an exit at the end of the season.

However, former Gunners star Paul Merson feels the World Cup winner’s wages will scare other team away from making an offer.

“Unless Mikel Arteta gets some players in and out of Arsenal this summer this team is going to finish seventh or eighth next season,” Merson told the Daily Star.

“I’m not surprised Mesut Ozil’s agent says he’s not going anywhere though. Where can he go on that money? If he was on £50,000-a-week everybody would be trying to sign him but because he’s on £350,000 everyone hates him.

“Arteta needs to get players out though, and I don’t think he’ll be too upset that Sokratis says he’ll go if he’s not playing enough. I like players who are honest like that to be fair to him. It’s better than being prepared to just sit around picking up your money.

“Arsenal need to get their wage bill down and get rid of players who don’t have a future there. So Sokratis is expendable.

“But I hope Arteta gets to bring in a few too because he hasn’t really got his own players there yet.

“He will need a good pre-season and some new signings but I can see progress already even though they went out of the Europa League.” – kickoff.com