Arsenal would sell Mesut Ozil “tomorrow” if they got the right offer, says Tony Adams, but he considers the World Cup winner unfortunate as he remains an “enormous talent surrounded by a lot of mess”.
That situation appears to be edging the former Germany international towards the exits at Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta looks to have dropped the enigmatic playmaker from his plans, with the 31-year-old sparking further rounds of transfer talk after entering the final 12 months of a lucrative contract.
The former Arsenal captain told Stadium Astro:
“I think I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s a very laid-back kind of guy, he doesn’t get too flustered with anything to be honest with you. He just goes a little bit – what we would call in our day – going through the motions; but players are very different today, they’re not questioned in training.
“There was an article that came out recently about Kieran Tierney being questioned because Tierney was getting a few tackles in in training and he was asked to take things a little bit easier. I kind of went, ‘Hold on a minute, no, no, no, you test them, you rattle them, you get involved’.
“I think Ozil, he’s a very calm, sweet man, so don’t judge him too quickly. He is a talent, and half the job of a head coach is getting the best out of that talent.
“So you could swing it on Arteta. The minute you don’t get results, this is going to be more of an issue. If we lose in the FA Cup final, I think people will start then going, ‘Actually, how Arteta are you dealing with this situation? What are you going to do?’
“Then all the questions you’ve fired at me, are the ones the public are going to be saying, ‘Come on then Ozil, what you posting on your social media? Are you applying yourself? What are you doing?’
“Is there anybody at the club saying that to him? ‘Why are you doing your clothing range, what’s that about Ozil?’ Is there was anyone at the club, around Mesut Ozil, passing on the message of, ‘Come on, what’s going on here? What are you doing?’
“There’s too many outside influences and that’s where I think the Ozil brand comes into it, and the people on the periphery, and the agents get involved.
“Actually, if you look underneath all that, there’s a really sweet human being in there, really shy boy, that has enormous talent, but he’s surrounded by a lot of mess.”
