Wow, he's up there with Arouna Kone and David Nugent. Except that you could've bought either of them with his weekly wage, of course.
Neither of those players were one of the best #10s in the world, though. And none of those players have won 4 FA Cups in 7 years. Ozil was widely regarded as one of the best players in the world when we signed him. He was very effective for us from 2013-2017. He's not done well since, giving him that huge contract was unbelievably stupid and that will undoubtedly shift how he's perceived due to recency bias. But it's not all his fault. Even though he's declined, he has still been let down by poor tactics, team mates and management. At the end of the day though, he's given us fond memories and was part of our most successful team(s) post-Highbury.
Overall? No. But that doesn't change the validity of him being ingrained in our history and being part of an Arsenal team that won stuff.
And now he's dossing about, taking the piss and being lauded by Arsenal fans, who apparently love being mugged off. What a hero. He was proved right about not taking a pay cut to save jobs though, to be fair to him. You stabbed your players right in the back on that one.
To be fair, he's 'dossing about' because the club aren't utilising him, despite him saying countless times he's fit. He's not in the club's plans. Arsenal have clearly tried to use every method they can to force him out. It's not worked, obviously, because no-one else wants to give him the money we do and he's settled in London. That's our fault for giving him that contract, though. I don't think many Arsenal fans are under any illusions. Although there are some who are quite nostalgic, a lot of them acknowledge he needs to go. His wages are a huge financial burden on the club. Spending £18.2m a year on a player that we're rarely using can only be a negative. But if he's going to take the piss out of our rivals, of course Arsenal fans are going to lap it up. I know he left you a long time ago, but Van der Vaart's had a few digs at Arsenal before and Spurs fans revelled in it. It happens. Part of the rivalry. He was right about the Uyghurs issue, too. Arsenal distancing themselves from Ozil on that topic, yet supporting Black Lives Matter, makes no sense in the context of advocating human rights. Doesn't make sense to support one and not the other. Unless, of course, it was a PR decision that the club wanted to benefit from.
Ozil doesn't look interested in playing any more. He's ****ed off the German national team and strops about for your lot when he's picked. He's doing a Bale but with added laziness. At least he turns up for Wales. Van der Vaart left Spurs on good terms. Ozil is still at Arsenal, but can't be arsed. That's not the same. I wouldn't have a pop at Henry for slagging off Tottenham, nor for the fans appreciating it. Ozil was right about China, but he's in no position to discuss the hypocrisy. His best man is ethnic cleansing the Kurds.
Pre-lockdown, he'd started our last 4 games in a row and actually got the assist for Lacazette's winner against West Ham in the final PL game before football was postponed. He was starting. It was only when he decided to refuse the 12.5% pay cut that Arteta stopped playing him. I don't think that's coincidental and Ozil alluded to this in his interview with The Athletic. You know as well as I do that any ex-Spurs player who took a dig at Arsenal on social media would have their praises sung by Spurs fans, irrespective of whether they divided your fanbase when playing or not. I'm with you on Erdogan, but being a hypocrite doesn't mean he's wrong on that issue.
His "position" IMHO is not complete (not protesting against all current instances of such antics against Muslim ethnic groups) . Embarrassing yes (given his acquaintances) , but not hypocrisy. "His best man is " *evacuating* "the Kurds." < Wansee >
And it turns out that he was right to turn it down. Wasn't a good look at the time, admittedly. The 4 games in a row are a clear outlier to the previous couple of seasons, though. He's given up. And this demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about: you're referring to him as an ex-Arsenal player! Agreed. It does completely undermine any point he's trying to make, though.
"Please tell me what Kane, Son, Alli, Lucas, Toby etc have won/achieved during their time at Spurs as part of your golden gen? I'll wait..." So during Hugo Lloris' time at Spurs he's achieved a World Cup win as captain of his country...
