Ozil and Kaka : A Tale Of Two Transfers

Mesut Ozil

A very different, more agreeable welcome awaits his (now-former) teammate Mesut Oezil at Arsenal’s Emirate Stadium, where the arrival of Ozil is being greeted with relieved exhilaration. Despite going on about the (undeniable) moral victory in defeating a newly-beefed up Tottenham Hotspurs without spending a penny, Arsenal fans were missing their own ‘Bale at the Bernabeu’ moment. Most Gunners have been railing all summer for a new player and, at the time of going to press this morning, still wanted one badly.

So the arrival of Mesut Ozil was greeted in much the same way that a green, leafy oasis full of cold pools would be in the middle of the Sahara in June.

In short, Twitter exploded.

Gooner euphoria aside, Ozil is definitely a prize catch and I will stick my neck out to say that he is the single best midfielder to move to England this season. Of course, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen are fantastic attackers in their own right, but Ozil is of a different calibre. He has proven his quality in the Champions League and the World Cup, and was a consistent starter in a Real team crammed with star forwards. His vision, through balls and speed in transition makes him an excellent catch.

And yes, there was a time when I would have said the same for Kaka.

But Kaka is now past it and is not the player Milan needs. CEO Adriano Galliani justified the twin sales of Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva last season by pointing to the wage bill. He has a good squad at hand and taking Kaka back just because he was up for grabs makes no sense. It harks back to the old days of Serie A, where fiscal irresponsibility was the norm.

Ozil’s signing on the other hand is a cause for optimism, and not just in North London. Of late, the EPL‘s level has dropped a few notches. The symptoms are manifold. For one, English clubs no longer make it to the Champions League’s latter stages as often as before. For another, genuinely good players prefer to play elsewhere – the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, Vidal and Lewandowski are arguably unmatched in the EPL. While Mesut Ozil is not yet the superman many Gooners will expect, his presence definitely allows them to convincingly challenge the Manchester clubs and Chelsea for the title.

Which makes the Premier League very interesting indeed.