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Arsenal are keen to cancel the contract of German midfielder Mesut Ozil and want to reopen discussions with him on the matter.
On Thursday, Ozil was one of two non-homegrown players, along with defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who was left out of Arsenal’s Europa League squad submitted to UEFA. And, with every likelihood that he will also be omitted from Mikel Arteta’s Premier League squad when that is finalised, there is every prospect he will never play for the club again.
Ozil himself has always insisted that he intends to see out his contract at the Emirates, which still has nine months to run.
He is the club’s highest-paid earner on £350,000 a week, and they would desperately like to remove him from their wage bill. However, with the former German international in no mood to compromise, paying him off early could cost them close to £13 million.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.