Mesut Özil Last Dance Seemingly Cancelled

by .

Well, it didn’t take long for the shine to rub from the Thomas Partey transfer.

Arsenal managed to get themselves into the weirdest fight of 2020 as Mesut Özil and our exec leadership traded blows over the redundancy of the man behind the Gunnersaurus.

Now, let me cover off a few things.

Firstly, my deepest sympathies to Jerry Quy who lost his job after many years of loyal service. I cannot imagine how tough this moment must be for him. Losing your job is bad enough without being part of a PR war of attrition with the most famous footballer in North London.

The way Arsenal dealt with the mascot situation was absolutely horrendous. Binning off a very visible part of the club and burying the story on transfer deadline day felt very, very amateur. Leadership is often about managing contradictions, but firing the mascot whilst lavishing £50m on a £250k a week player felt like corporate doublespeak in the extreme.

Machiavelli in The Prince suggests that cruel acts be done all at once to maintain power over the people. Arsenal’s slow drip, drip, drip of bad news suggests leadership skipped this chapter. We sacked the scouts. Then the 55. Then, weirdly, word dropped that the mascot had been binned. What an utterly pointless exercise in cost-cutting that lacked any humanity for the employee or self-awareness for how this would play out with the footballing community. Savings should be done with people in mind, this sort of exercise looked like the back-office spreadsheet merchants had been let loose without a sentient minder. Horrible stuff.

Next up, Mesut Ozil, PR guru of the internet swept in and offered to pick up the salary.

Firstly, it’s lovely that he’s willing to step in for someone. You can’t knock that. But the move is painfully transparent. The sole purpose of his campaign was to embarrass the club. I’d liken the move to calling your boss a ‘faaacking melt’ in an aggressive Essex accent, in the moment, you feel like a hero, but the next morning, when you realise you’ve just screwed your life so bad you’ll be adding skimmed cows milk to your Nescafe instant coffee… you feel silly.

This is another of Mesut’s classic contradictions. Salaries weren’t important a few weeks ago when he was trying to assess the business implications of the pandemic. He didn’t accept his 12.5% pay cut on his £18.2m a year salary when nearly everyone else did. That totalled £2,184,000. He didn’t step forward for the 55 laid off in the first round, a rumoured bill of £2.5m. That’s his decision, but it makes it clear the target of his generosity was not Jerry, it was to humiliate Arsenal at the cost of a day’s wages.

The club deserved the humiliation in this case, Arsenal’s own goal was greeted with the disdain it deserved, but bigger picture, what was the point for Mesut the footballer?

A lot of fans were hoping there’d be one more chance, his fans were pleading for ‘The Last Dance’, but after this? It’s a struggle to see how he can come back from it. What is super odd is that his people thought it was a good idea. He’s just told the world he does his own thing. He’s not a team player. He now operates as a lone wolf. Why would you want that to be the messaging for your personal brand in the final year of your deal?

The staff knew where it was going with Mesut, the predictable pattern of injuries, the lack of interest in new requirements like club Zoom calls and homework. It doubled down on what we all suspected, this is a player that doesn’t really care anymore. That’s sad. He’s an outrageous talent on his day. It is such a shame that he still wants a fight no one really cares about.

Still, it’ll be over by next June. Until then, it’ll be fascinating to see what Arteta does about it, or more likely, does not do about it.

Onto other news. I like the low-key job Per and Edu have been doing with the youth team this summer.

  • Lewis 18
  • Akinola 19
  • Dinzeyi 20
  • Möller 18
  • Ideho 17
  • Salah 17
  • Rekik 18

Data led scouting. A low-risk/high-reward strategy. A group of players that will all fit the profile of what Arteta wants in his players. On paper, it seems very promising. All you need is one of them to come good and you pay for the entire process.

There was a bit of shock on the Premier League website as the squads for this season were updated. Pablo Mari and Cedric were missing. Well apparently, that list isn’t final until October 15th or so. The question is, who makes the squad and who doesn’t? Will we keep Mesut on the books after yesterday’s episode? Which defenders stay and which go? I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

That’s all I have time for today. Listen to my podcast. Enjoy the slow couple of weeks we have coming up. See you in the comments. x

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Guns of Hackney

AFC

I wear trunks. I have the body.

I actually have some Le Perla…before Craig ruined them.

You need the cock though. And I have the cock.

Guns of Hackney

Marc

The drugs have long gone. As have the blow jobs. I’m married.

High five!

Jamie

Guns –

Jazz After Dark? If yes, another amazing venue (on Greek I think).

Good times in Soho back in the day too. Don’t knock the meat-free hot sandwich until you’ve tried it. I still go to Ronnie Scott’s a few times a year because I’ve loved it for 20+ years. I remember when you could smoke it there.

AFC Forever

MW
“Eh… Guns is talkin shit anyhow.. He is married and anyone who has been married knows your not right 99% of the time”

So true. My wife tries the trick question routine.

The other day she said: “Hey dick head, what do a clitoris, an anniversary, and a toilet have in common?”

I told I literally had no idea.

She said: “Well you manage to miss every one of them”

Jamie

smoke in* there

AFC Forever

Guns
“Oh, too many drugs and blowjobs have made me forget”

Try mouthwash mate, soon get rid of the taste.

Guns of Hackney

Jamie

I think that’s it! Tiny little place.

The pizza express thing was great though. Lots of big names played there. Proper jazz club. Little tables, red lights, smoke and pizza on the tables.

AFC

Good one. Bitches need to learn. Anyway, my wife can’t do to me what some ladies have done to me in the past…no big deal.

My wife isn’t in my top 50 of all time ladies. But she’s the no.1 wife and mother.

Remember Rick James? The kind you DONT take home to mother.

Nelson

Just saw that Saka starts for England wearing #3. Does it mean that he’ll play the LB?

Ernest Reed

“Remember Rick James? The kind you DONT take home to mother.”

Cocaine’s a hell of a drug!

Guns of Hackney

Nelson

Henry played at no.14 which would have been a squad number. Not even on bench. Numbers mean nothing.

Nelson

Trippier is the captain.

Guns of Hackney

Reed

Ha ha. You’ve seen the Charlie Murphy Hollywood Stories too. Hilarious.

“I didn’t grind my feet into his couch…yeah I grinder my feet into his couch”.

“I’m Rick James, he’s Charlie Murphy…what’s he gonna do”?

Cocaine is a helluva drug and I miss it so badly. Oh my god!

AFC Forever

I take Viagra for sunburn.

Doesn’t cure it but it does keep the sheets off my chest.

Jamie

Guns –

I spent so many nights around there it’s unreal. If memory serves, you’ve long since moved out of central London? I’d miss getting yelled at in Bar Italia as I try to order a £20 sandwich.

Jamie

The one where Charlie shoots hoops with Prince is amazing as well.

“And after we was done, Prince served us some pancakes”

RayGooner

My only question is: You are just allowed to have 17 foreign players (from the age of 21 and older) in your squad. We currently have 18! 1. Leno 2. Rúnarsson 3. Gabriel 4. Mustafi 5. Sokratis 6. Luiz 7. Marí 8. Kolasinac 9. Soares 10. Xhaka 11. Elneny 12. Ceballos 13. Özil 14. Willian 15. Partey 16. Pépé 17. Aubameyang 18. Lacazette That means one of them will not be registered for the Premier League! I know you may loan out a player to the lower leagues (The Championship for example) but which one of those 18 players want… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Jamie

Long gone. 6 years. Never going back. I served my time. Maybe we met.

Bar Italia was the comedown place at around 04.00 or even the following morning. It was a great time. Bar SoHo, Nellie Dean, French House, Groucho, Harry’s, Colony Rooms did them all. Hard.

No looking back. It gives you a sore neck. “My father”.

Guns of Hackney

Why don’t you purify yourself in the waters of lake minatoba.

Assemble your crew…you vs me and the revolution.

In your face, Charlie Murphy.

AFC Forever

RayGoonwr
Mari is injured but even so it will probably be Ozil. Read my piece higher up the page on Ozil.

jwl

Arsenal are sweating on the fitness of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for their Premier League clash with Man City. The Gunners captain withdrew from the Gabon squad with a sprained ankle this week.

Gabon boss Patrice Neveu confirmed Aubameyang’s injury.

He told RFI: “Aubameyang suffers from a small sprained ankle, contracted on Sunday, during the Premier League match against Sheffield. The Arsenal doctor sent me a certificate indicating his unavailability. He is in care for a week.”

https://talksport.com/football/771398/arsenal-pierre-emerick-aubameyang-injury-man-city/amp/

Ernest Reed

You got it Guns, hillarious! Also loved the Prince “Shirts vs Blouses” episode!

Ernest Reed

The Playa Haters Ball – The picture of Rosie O’Donnell – “Bitch wears underwear with dickholes in them.

Too funny, The Chappelle Show!

Emiratesstroller

Ray Gooner

We have 19 overseas players. You have omitted Tierney. He is not considered as Home Grown.

Marc

The question isn’t who do we leave out of the 17 oversea’s players we can register it’s how did we end up with so many we could leave out and it wouldn’t matter.

Luteo Guenreira

Guns

Why don’t you click your heels three times and go back to Hackney? You broke ass sexual chocolate.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go put water in Dariano’s mama’s dish.

Nelson

England plays 3 at the back. But the system is more like 3 5 2 with Saka and Tripier as wing back and
Calvert-Lewin and Danny Ings as attackers. There are still three midfielders.

Nelson

2 – 0 England

Nelson

Grealish can really run with the ball.Someone we really need..

Nelson

3 – 0 England

Nelson

AMN comes in for Saka at the 75 mins.

Guns of Brixton

Did you see Serbia vs Norway?

FFS Make some noise about Savic of Lazio.
Guy is filthy in all the right ways.
B2B in the purset technical senses way.
Beautiful midfielder.
Adept going forward as he is defensively.
The audacity of the man to win the game with a goal like that

AFC Forever

Guns

No.

Guns of Brixton

*blows raspberry*

China1

First we had GOH talking about his cock now GOB is talking about a Guy filthy in all the right ways

Everyone needs to take a cold shower

bacaryisgod

When it comes to statues, I think there’s just 5 statues right now (Henry, Adams, Chapman, Bergkamp, Friar) with Arsene being the next in line. Getting a statue should be a rare tribute and involve a combination of excellence, loyalty, longevity and arguably club success. After Arsene, the only no-brainer is Ian Wright. After Wright, here are the other main contenders -Pat Rice (loses points for excellence but gains for loyalty and longevity) -Liam Brady (joined at 15, was brilliant but left us at his peak) -David Seaman (best keeper in the club’s history and won titles under Graham and… Read more »

Gonsterous

I thought statues were meant to be rare applauds. I don’t think we will be building them like we want to assemble a team.
We could make a case for many players over our 134 years as a team.

Graham62

Wenger deserves his statue and we should leave it at that.

Ian Wright should be there already.

grooveydaddy

Surely some of those Chapman (and successors) Era players must be in with a shout?

Bertie Mee

We don’t need statues everywhere but if we had one more I would give it to Frank McLintock .He was a great captain of the first Double side . Arsenal has a history that goes way back beyond the 10/20 year timeframe for most fans and we had great players and otge4 figures in the thirties and fifties

Bertie Mee

Sorry ‘ other figures’

Ivan

Guns – big fat no re Savic. There was lot of interest about him in his break out season with Lazio.

Lazio wanted smh around 80mil. for him and he didnt get sold (if i remeber cireectly ManU was all over him.

Season later he became inconsistent and all big clubs lost interest in him.

Gonsterous

Well bad news guys, Auba is injured with an ankle injury, he won’t play against city.

Northbanker

Alex James Ted Drake and Eddie Hapgood should all be in the reckoning as should Joe Mercer

grooveydaddy

David Jack?

Cliff Bastin?

Words on a Blog

Lord Bendtner

Wenker-wanger

Wenger deserves a statue? Not in my world.
Had he quit in a respectable dignified manner around 2006 yes.. he did a great job with the remnants of a great team picked by George Graham.
But that success and great flair football had then been more than tarnished by a decade of mismanagement and teams relying on a talisman to elevate his mediocre teams into fourth place.

Wenker-wanger

Agree about Frank McLintock…what a captain !

Wenker-wanger

David O’Leary 700 + appearances. true loyal arsenal legend.

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