There’s been something rather enigmatic about Mesut Ozil this season.
While Alexis Sanchez has made his frustrations only too clear, his more understated team-mate hasn’t been drawing too much attention to himself.
Now, that’s partly because Sanchez has actually been playing well, and the Germany international hasn’t. Obviously, in those circumstances, the spotlight is always going to scrutinise the Chilean’s behaviour more.
Yet, it would still be a hugely significant turn of events were Ozil to quit north London.
It was originally thought that his contract negotiations were all about the money.
The playmaker is currently on a basic salary of £140,000 a week, but he could easily earn upwards of £200,000 a week elsewhere.
Nonetheless, the Sun claim he has now been offered £280,000 a week, significantly more than his representatives were originally pushing for – but he is set to turn it down anyway.
It’d be a monumental rejection for Arsenal, who are defying their own, usually strict, wage structure to make such an offer.
‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ is presumably their mantra in the ongoing negotiations.
Unfortunately, this is an issue which should have been resolved earlier in the season when the future still looked rosy.
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