Alexis Sanchez & Mesut Ozil: Selling Arsenal players 'right' - Martin Keown

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40114462

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger should sell "overindulged" star players Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil after agreeing to extend his stay at the club, says ex-defender Martin Keown.

"If they have to say cheerio to those two players, then that is the right decision," Keown told BBC Radio 5 live.

"They have been overindulged at times this season and they let Arsenal down in the period when they lost twice to Bayern Munich, conceding 10 goals. That is the level of the problem," said Keown, who played more than 300 games for Arsenal.

"The manager needs to make some really tough decisions now. Sanchez's contract needs to get 100% secured. Is that going to happen? Will Ozil leave?

"I am sure both players want to go elsewhere because they want to win the Champions League, win the Premier League and maybe they do not feel it can be done at Arsenal. The club is bigger than two individuals."

 

Wow just wow, Keown just said that our two best players were overindulgent and the cause of our 5-1 hammerings from Bayern and poor league runs. Is he bat sh1t crazy? Firstly he's blaming two forward attacking players for shipping in 10 goals and secondly, if it wasn't for those two, our season would have been even worse. Sanchez carried us for large portions of the season and he's calling him overindulgent?

So he seems to be targeting those two players but what about the rest? Ramsey for example had a terrible season. What about OXO, Xhaka, Coqs, Gabrielle etc? I didn't see any of those guys stand up and deliver? He also doesn't seem to have mentioned Wenger, who after all, is our bloody manager. He failed to rally the troops when we went into a dip, or set the team up properly against Bayern.

Selling those two would be the worst we could do. We would lose two of our best players and put us back a couple of steps. We would have to find players of similar quality and then we'd be right back at square one. We have to get rid of the excess baggage and add top players, not lose them!

The guy is either a buffoon or a mouthpiece of the current regime.

 

If it's true that Ozil rejected £250k per week, not sure what more we can do, I would tell him to **** off. Sanchez I would keep regardless.

 

I agree, you can't force players to stay when we've offered him a great deal of money. But Sanchez is a player we should really keep. Losing one is bad but two? Our transfer windows are usually laboured and excruciating, just imagine having to replace those guys with similar quality and then adding more. I can't see it happening the way it should and we'd end up not strengthening at all.

 

I'm wondering where all these rumours are suddenly coming from? First the £150m war chest story, and then the £250k/£350k a week stories being offered to Ozil and Sanchez?

 

Losing two of our best players would be nothing other than a disaster.

 

If both are being wage sluts, then sacrifice Ozil to keep Sanchez.

Sanchez is like Henry and RVP, capable of single-handedly dragging
your season into respectability when the rest of the squad has been poor.
Madness to let him go.

 

Sell the over rated Ozil and bring in Mahrez?

 

Sensible. Wenger will probably sell Sanchez and give Ozil the wages.

 

If the rumours are to be believed, i.e. demanding upwards of 350k per week - that is basically holding a gun to the club. I would say sell them both! Paying these guys silly money messes up the team dynamics. Also the club will make a rod for its own back as if you want to bring in any player, you have already blown the wage structure. Both players are good players, but I will not put either in the same category of a Ronaldo or Messi.

What is clearly missing from the team is leadership, (not someone who sulks when the chips are down) and team ethics. You look at Spurs hardly any superstars in their ranks, but they play for each other, they have that team ethos. I bet you the difference between their high end players are low end is no more than 30%. I would rather someone who wants to play for the shirt, rather than some greedy money grabbing player. How can we ever justify paying someone 350k pw and someone else in the team 40k?

 

The highest paid players in the league are on between 250k and 300k aren't they? And there's only a few of them. The idea of paying Ozil and Sanchez comfortably the best wages in the league is ridiculous. Paying them somewhere in the 200-300k mark would be just about acceptable but over 300k is nonsense surely?

 

Ozil isn't overrated.

I'd keep Ozil and Sanchez AND sign mahrez please.

 

Of course he is. He does the odd good pass or flick on the ball. Other than that he just constantly loses the ball and proceeds to walk about the pitch not giving a ****.

 

He has like 90 combined goals and assists in 161 apps, 68 in 116 in the league. That's almost a goal or assist per 2 of 3 games over 4 seasons!

He has the record for most chances created in a prem game, most chances created in a prem season, was one off most assists in a season, assists in most consecutive prem games, second only to cantina for assists in first 100 prem games, etc etc etc...

And he does it with the beautiful flicks and skills

 

This Ozil is lazy/average and what have you is the by product of lazy journalism clickbait. He's a great player but he's not being managed to his full potential and for too often had average players in the likes of OG and Theo as the recipients of his key assists.

Keep Sanchez and get a decent forward in front of Ozil and you'll see the goals pour in. Personally I'd love to get Mahrez too and put him on the left with Sanchez as our starting front man.

 

Overrated and lazy. I was a big fan and thought he was unfairly treated but he's the sort of player when the going gets tough is one of those who is also down in the dumps.

To be fair he picked it up a bit in 2015-16 but in general when the chips are down, he's not there to pick the team up. Likewise he doesn't really perform in the big games either.

He lacks that turn of pace and ability to beat a man which would really set him apart. Technically up there definitely. Just Really good player bu no way world class no chance.

 

He has plenty of goals and assists in the big games. And he turned up against Chelsea in the FA Cup final

He's got decent pace and can go past a man with a clever flick or two but he normally does it when running onto the ball or on the counter.

He's definitely world class. He's capable of stuff that only a handful of players can do.

 

I've said it before but if I was Wenger I'd pack Ozil's bags personally if he's still refusing to sign. Sanchez if he won't go abroad I would force to stay even if it mean losing him for free but I suspect the club will see it differently

 

But what has he done over the past 18 months? Everyone flukes a good season, like Van Persie or Sturridge etc

 

Who have performed better than him the past 18 months.