Mesut Ozil may not be putting in the required effort at Arsenal as he has entered his ‘comfort zone’, Arsene Wenger suggests.
Ozil penned fresh terms with the Gunners last January while Wenger was still in charge at the Emirates Stadium, with a big-money deal keeping the German playmaker in north London until summer 2021.
However, he has been in and out of the team under Unai Emery, Wenger’s successor, starting just 13 Premier League matches this season and featuring only 18 times in all competitions.
There were suggestions he could be sold or loaned out throughout the January transfer window, but Ozil remained at the Emirates – though questions remain over his future.
And Wenger, the man who signed off on Ozil’s big-money deal last year, suggested the 30-year-old may not be giving 100 per cent due to the safety of his new contract.
“I feel that the length of the contract has nothing to do normally with the selection of the team,” Wenger said, after being honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Laureus World Sports Awards. “But sometimes there are special cases.
“Most of the time now we think when we sign a player for five years we have a good player for five years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they practice, they play their best. Because they might be in their comfort zone.
“He has a contract but the problem is that if you want to buy a player like him you have to spend £100million.
“And to maintain the value of the player, beyond the Ozil case, it is more about the way football is structured.
“To buy players of top, top quality you need £100million. 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?”
Ozil has played just twice since the turn of the year and he was not named in Emery’s squad for Arsenal’s previous two matches, a Premier League defeat of Huddersfield and last week’s Europa League loss at BATE.