After weeks of unsuccessful bids and tortuously observing rivals’ splash cash in the summer transfer window, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has finally opened his cobweb filled wallet and spent some money. Gunner’s fans have had an agonizing wait as it was not until the transfer deadline that Wenger chose to pounce on his main targets. It would seem the wait paid off as yesterday Arsenal confirmed the signing of one of the world’s greatest midfielders, German international and Real Madrid star, Mesut Özil, who will wear number 11 for his new team. For fee around £42.4 million+ £5 million in potential add-ons, it smashed the previous Arsenal transfer record, which stood at £15 million, a fee paid for Andrey Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg in 2009.
At joining the club, Özil made a statement saying, ”I am thrilled to be joining a club of the stature of Arsenal and am looking forward to playing in the Premier League.”
The former Real Madrid man who over the past 3 seasons has assisted more goals (91) than any other European player is undoubtedly a world class player and was captured at a bargain price. Although the sale does beg the question; why did Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti let him go?
Understandably after the purchase of Gareth Bale for a fee around £86 million, Özil’s starting position on the field would not be as secure as he would have liked. Along with this expenditure, Real Madrid would be looking to balance out their finances and the fee for Özil would definitely help towards that. In total with the signings of Gareth Bale (€100 million), Asier Illarramendi (€38.9 million), Isco (€30 million), Daniel Carvajal (€6.5 million) and Casemiro (€6 million) the club has spent a total of around €181 million this summer. Even with the sales of Gonzalo Higuain (€32 million), Raul Albiol (€10 million), Jose Callejon (€8.3 million), Pedro Leon (€5.2 million) and Kaka off the wage bill, Los Blancos would still have been -€126 million, explaining the need for the sale of Özil.
Yet not everyone is won over by this explanation, popular German newspaper Bild questioned the reasoning behind the midfielder’s departure and ran the headline ‘Real bully Özil to Arsenal’ on their front page. The featured article in the paper claim ‘last week Özil said he still wanted to stay there [Real Madrid] because he was comfortable and liked it there, but he didn’t know at that time that Madrid had already told other clubs they would trade him.’ They continue to report that the decision to let their national player go was ‘outrageous’. Also according to Bild, the coaches of Real Madrid have recently asked the Italian manager which players would be the clubs big players this season and when he replied Özil’s name was not amongst them. The paper states that Özil ‘didn’t play in the last game and he then realised he didn’t want to stay there anymore.’
In another recent interview, this time with German football association website DFB.DE, Özil revealed that he felt he did not have enough faith in the club’s hierarchy and new manager Carlo Ancelotti to carry on playing at Real Madrid. In a different interview by the same website, German general manager Oliver Bierhoff claimed to not be ‘100% behind him’.
Özil was reported to have said a week ago when asked about possibility of his departure, “I have a contract and I will stay with Real Madrid. I’m fine until 2016. It’s an honour to play in this team.”
Even with the financial balancing explanation evident, some of his ex teammates were left stunned and disappointed, Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos expressed his confusion saying, “Özil would be the very last player who I would sell from Real Madrid, if it was up to me. I don’t understand this.” Meanwhile former Madrid and current international teammate Sami Khedira implied that it would be a step backward for Madrid.
Arsenal started the transfer window with a reported £70 million to spend, leaving fans ecstatic at the thought of having so much money to strengthen their squad with. Yet as weeks turned to months still without so much as a penny being spent, moods deteriorated and patience grew thin, soon enough Wenger came under the media spotlight. The arrival of Yaya Sanogo and the second coming of fellow Frenchman Mathieu Flamini (both on free transfers) acted as little consolidation as the fact of the matter was Wenger still hadn’t spent. As the media questioned Wenger over his shrewd ways and pressed him on the matter of Andre Villas-Boas and his Tottenham revolution, Wenger reacted by criticising Spurs and their transfer policy along with the eyebrow raising fee for Bale.
Wenger and Arsenal have the upmost need for Mesut Özil as the Champions’ League group draw saw them dumped in a ‘group of death’ leaving them to battle it out with the likes of Marseilles, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli.
