Many are wondering whether or not Mesut Ozil will still be an Arsenal player come the end of January. Fans expect the upcoming window to be a busy one, with a number of players being monitored by Arsenal. However, it’s likely that the club will need to free up the wage budget to some degree if they’re going to land a highly-rated player like Szoboszlai.

Having been left out of Arsenal’s Premier League and Europa League squads, Ozil has been forced to support Arsenal as a spectator, and many are unhappy that his Arsenal spell, that started so brightly in 2013, could end on a very sour note.

However, there could be a version of this where Ozil does feature in the second half of Arsenal’s season, and even Arteta has admitted that nothing has been determined as of yet. A third scenario, and probably one which will upset Arsenal fans the most, is if he stays without playing, picks up the wages for another few months, and then leaves. A report from the Daily Mirror today sheds further light on the situation:

The report adds that Arsenal originally included such bonuses to keep Ozil from joining a big club, but ironically, they are now preventing Arsenal from selling the player, who stands to make more money just staying even if he cannot play.

The latest to speak about the situation is Freddie Ljungberg, who managed Arsenal briefly before Mikel Arteta took charge.

“When you have possession or need to find that pass, I don’t think there’s many better players than Mesut at doing that. Of course, you lose a bit defensively, but that’s the decision they have made. I don’t know why the decision has been made that he is outside of the squad, so they can’t use him.”

Freddie Ljungberg, Sky Sports

In a conflicting report, a member of Fenerbahce has shown optimism that Ozil will be heading to Turkey very soon:

It looks very unlikely that Ozil will be playing for Arsenal in the 2021-22 season, but whether or not we see him in Arsenal colours during the later months of 2020-21 is almost impossible to predict. One can only hope that the ending of this story will be a happy one..

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