3 reasons why Arsenal must sell Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozil, Arsenal’s talisman, and a 5 time German Player of the Year announced his international retirement on grounds of racism and discrimination faced from the DFB, German media, and the general public.

Ozil was signed from Real Madrid on 2nd September 2013, for £42.5 million which was seen as a major coup by Arsene Wenger. He has produced moments of pure brilliance which would make you wonder at times if he is human.

These moments of brilliance are matched by long periods of frustrating displays where his style of play is seen as lazy and lethargic and you wonder if he is a magician because he becomes invisible.

Though he is Arsenal’s talisman and has just signed a new 5-year deal, the time is right to sell him for 3 main reasons.

3 - Unai Emery’s philosophy

For starters, Unai Emery style of play is centered on enthusiasm, heavy pressure, and energy on and off the ball.

So far, Emery has talked about building the team around Aaron Ramsey and Aubameyang. There is little mention of Ozil, though he has been handed the No. 10 jersey at Arsenal after Wilshere left the club.

Ozil’s style of play is not entirely suited to Emery’s style so it remains to be seen if he can change his game to fit in entirely or Emery will make changes to accommodate him.

2 - Decline in performance

Mesut turns 30 on 15th October this year. Though his game isn’t based on pace or power, you are left to wonder how his game has declined over the past few seasons.

In the Premier League, in 2015-16 he had 6 goals and 19 assists, in 2016-17, he had 8 goals and 9 assists and in 2017-18 he only scored 4 goals and assisted 8 goals. Furthermore, in the Europa League, he just scored 1 goal in 7 matches.

He goes missing for vast periods with the odd rare flash of brilliance especially when his team needs him the most. There is a clear decline in his performance.

If he doesn’t fit in the club’s philosophy and the new manager isn’t very keen on him, Arsenal should sell him and free up wages (£ 350,000 a week) and add around £40 million to the transfer kitty, which Mislintat and Sanllehi can use to buy other players who will make a bigger difference.

1 - Confidence

Every coach who has worked with Ozil has described him as a "confidence player". He has been described as a player who just cannot perform without feeling completely at ease with his surroundings and having the full support of everyone around him.

With the uproar surrounding his international retirement, he doesn’t look at ease and it showed this World Cup. It will be difficult to predict his performances in the 2018-19 season.

The pressure will be high on Unai Emery to show results and a couple of sub-par performances from Ozil will result in his benching, reducing his confidence even more. If Ozil doesn’t play well this season, his value will reduce in the future.