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Mesut Ozil is negotiating a move to Turkish club Fenerbahçe that would see him take a massive pay cut to £150,000 a week.
However, that deal will not happen until his current contract with Arsenal comes to an end in the summer, meaning that, in the meantime, his continued presence at the Emirates poses a dilemma for Mikel Arteta.
Despite being the club’s top earner, he has not played a single minute for the Gunners this season, and was left out of both their Premier League and Europa League squads.
The reasons for his exclusion have never been made clear, although some believe it may have to do with controversial comments that Ozil, a Muslim, made about the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uighur minority people.
Nevertheless, with some senior players reportedly unhappy about Ozil’s ostracism, and with the team crying out for creativity, there have been calls for Mikel Arteta to reintegrate him into the team for what remains of the rest of the season.
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.