Random Arsenal Shit (When it's not worth starting a thread)

[Power n Glory]

Always a mistake for footballers to get involved with politics or make any political statements, seeing as he's living in Germany you'd think he'd be awre of the issues and perhaps stay away from things like this.

Having done so he should have just dealt with the repercussions, retiring and then making comments on twitter was probably not the best move. In a way the guy at Bayern is right, we haven't seen the best of Ozil for years, I don't think he's been great in an Arsenal shirt, but that could also be due to the style of play.

Last time he was at his best was at Real, there's no doubt about his talent, but he needs to deliver more regularly and show what he can do, he'son big money for us now.

Read Ozil's statement and what he has said about the press wouldn't surprise me. It's nothing new. But not sure what to make of his actions. Whether it's brave, self centered or a deflection tactic, I haven't quite decided yet. But I can't say I feel much sympathy for him because he's been playing like shit for ages. It was only a matter of time before the German's started criticising his performances and commitment. It always leads down this path when people can't explain why talented players play like shit.

[Globalgunner]

Read Ozil's statement and what he has said about the press wouldn't surprise me. It's nothing new. But not sure what to make of his actions. Whether it's brave, self centered or a deflection tactic, I haven't quite decided yet. But I can't say I feel much sympathy for him because he's been playing like shit for ages. It was only a matter of time before the German's started criticising his performances and commitment. It always leads down this path when people can't explain why talented players play like shit.

The Bayern chap is talking shit. Most of the German players who flopped were either current or past Bayern players. This is simply defection. Muller for instance ws complete gash all tournament.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ayern-12965285

Ouch.

Hoeness would know all about fraud...

[Power n Glory]

The Bayern chap is talking shit. Most of the German players who flopped were either current or past Bayern players. This is simply defection. Muller for instance ws complete gash all tournament.

Over the last 3 years you've said the same about why Ozil isn't performing for Arsenal. The argument has always been 'well, he wasn't the worst player on the pitch'. He's hardly ever the best player either.

I said a year or two ago that most of Ozil's chance creation comes from crosses and cutbacks. The Bayern guy is right about that. Germany were shit overall. It's wrong for him to just single out Ozil, but Ozil always seems to find himself in these debates. Now it's with a totally different team that have nothing to do with Wenger or Arsenal. We'll see what he does with Unai. But I recall people saying he played well for Germany because of the quality around him. Goes to show a lot of people think he's been coasting for Germany as well.

Any how, on a constructive note, Ozil may be best suited to playing on the wing if his best weapon is his crosses and cutbacks. He'd play games out wide for Real and when he's on his game the boy can dribble. The number 10 position doesn't really exist in football anymore. Attacking midfielders are either being pushed wide if they have great dribbling skills and can score goals (Coutinho, De Bruyne) or getting played in deeper central roles (Cazorla, Modric). I don't think Unai plays with a number 10 so will be interesting to see how he uses Ozil.

[Globalgunner]

Over the last 3 years you've said the same about why Ozil isn't performing for Arsenal. The argument has always been 'well, he wasn't the worst player on the pitch'. He's hardly ever the best player either.

I said a year or two ago that most of Ozil's chance creation comes from crosses and cutbacks. The Bayern guy is right about that. Germany were shit overall. It's wrong for him to just single out Ozil, but Ozil always seems to find himself in these debates. Now it's with a totally different team that have nothing to do with Wenger or Arsenal. We'll see what he does with Unai. But I recall people saying he played well for Germany because of the quality around him. Goes to show a lot of people think he's been coasting for Germany as well.

Any how, on a constructive note, Ozil may be best suited to playing on the wing if his best weapon is his crosses and cutbacks. He'd play games out wide for Real and when he's on his game the boy can dribble. The number 10 position doesn't really exist in football anymore. Attacking midfielders are either being pushed wide if they have great dribbling skills and can score goals (Coutinho, De Bruyne) or getting played in deeper central roles (Cazorla, Modric). I don't think Unai plays with a number 10 so will be interesting to see how he uses Ozil.

You must have been following another poster for the last 3 years. The reason Arsenal have been crap since Ozil has been here is the same reason weve been crap before Ozil came here. That reason has since left the club. Germany cannot lay all their WC troubles at Ozils door. Low is fully responsible for that shit show.

[Power n Glory]

You must have been following another poster for the last 3 years. The reason Arsenal have been crap since Ozil has been here is the same reason weve been crap before Ozil came here. That reason has since left the club. Germany cannot lay all their WC troubles at Ozils door. Low is fully responsible for that shit show.

I don't know what you're reading either if you think I said Arsenal have been shit because of Ozil. GW

[Özim]

Terrible news, Usmanov allegedly wanting to sell his share in the club, potentially that could mean Kroenke owning the whole club. What's clear is Kroenke won't invest, looking at our budget we've had about 60 odd million for Emery, some might say it's because he's a new manager (not sure I totally agree), Everton have spent 50 million on one player.

So we have a billionaire owner who basically sits there and makes money, all the others seem to invest even the guy at Everton (Usmanov could end up their and make them competitors for us).

https://news.sky.com/story/russian-b...-says-11446839

[I am invisible]

Hoeness would know all about fraud...

[I am invisible]

Read Ozil's statement and what he has said about the press wouldn't surprise me. It's nothing new. But not sure what to make of his actions. Whether it's brave, self centered or a deflection tactic, I haven't quite decided yet. But I can't say I feel much sympathy for him because he's been playing like shit for ages. It was only a matter of time before the German's started criticising his performances and commitment. It always leads down this path when people can't explain why talented players play like shit.

Probably a little bit of all three, I suspect.

I spent half of yesterday evening listening to German football experts and former players on the radio, and the opinion seemed to be fairly unanimous that he has been scapegoated and singled out for harsher criticism than the other players (pretty much going back to before the 2014 WC), and that the DFB have made a right pig's ear of a situation that they could have easily squashed weeks ago.

From what I've read from his statement, his main gripe seems to be 1) with this guy Reinhard Grindel, who actually voted against dual-nationalities in German parliament, and is on record as saying that Islamic culture has become too ingrained in German cities (so all in all a pretty piss-poor choice for President of the DFB), and 2) the fact that he is constantly referred to as German-Turkish in the press instead of just German (or, better yet, as Mesut Özil, as his nationality really shouldn't need to be referenced at all when writing about him in the context of his national team). I think that second point is one of those drip-drip things that sounds like it should be a minor irritation at best, but that gradually has an effect without anyone really noticing that it's happening? Every time he's referred to as German-Turkish it's essentially a little reminder that he's thought of as German, but not really German, and then when the poor performances and bad results inevitably happen, it probably seems like the rest of the German players have been distanced from him and all of the undesirable labels that he's been tagged with over the years (lazy, uncommitted, etc) - labels that are traditionally regarded as distinctly unGerman.

That's how I imagine it will feel to Özil anyway. Chuck in the abuse and the threats that he and his family have been receiving on social media, the way Grindel has fanned the flames of a situation that he should have been trying to contain, and the childish, contemptuous comments of someone extremely influential like Uli Hoeness, and you can at least understand why he maybe feels justified and validated in making these claims of scapegoating and discrimination.

Having said all of that, Özil also comes across as unnecessarily defensive and completely unwilling to admit fault when it comes to 'the photo', and I really don't understand that at all? Nor do I understand why he let it drag on for so long without a response? If he'd just worded an immediate apology and mumbled something about poor judgement, then it may not have satisfied everyone, but I'm also sure it would have been quickly forgotten and written off as just another example of a footballer doing something stupid (in a long history of footballers doing bloody stupid things). Instead, he's tried to defend the indefensible, and in doing so he's given weight to the counter argument that he can't handle criticism, and that he's just playing the race / discrimination card to deflect attention away from poor performances.

For me, 'the photo', Özil's performances on the pitch, and his claims of scapegoating and discrimination are 3 distinct issues, each worthy of their own debate, but unfortunately neither side seem able (or willing) to separate them when making their arguments. For what it's worth, I think he's been unbelievably stupid with the photo, that his performances have been 'meh' for some time, and that (on some level) he is probably hoping that his claims of discrimination will deflect attention from the issue of his form. However, I also think that there probably is some merit to his claims of discrimination and scapegoating too, even if he is also using it to deflect - I don't think the two counter-accusations have to be mutually exclusive.

[SMatthews]

Lot of rumours saying Henry is about to take over as Aston Villa manager. Oh dear.