Mesut Ozil is determined to remain at Arsenal until his current contract runs out next summer.
The Gunners had a difficult issue to resolve back at the start of 2018, when both Ozil and Alexis Sanchez gave them a simultaneous headache regarding their respective futures. In the end, Sanchez left to join Manchester United with Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving the other way, while Ozil signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract worth a whopping £350,000 per week.
But the performances of the former German international started going downwards at precisely that point, indicating that the club had maybe made a mistake in putting so much faith (not to mention money) into him.
Long-serving manager Arsene Wenger left the club the following summer and Unai Emery was appointed as head coach instead. The former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain boss gradually lost his patience with Ozil and the number of his minutes on the pitch gradually declined.
Things certainly haven’t improved for the attacking midfielder since Mikel Arteta took the reins. In 2019/20, he made a total of 23 appearances for the club, scoring one goal and providing three assists for his teammates, but not one of those appearances came after the pandemic-caused three-month break.
Arsenal would prefer Ozil to move on this summer, which would release significant funds potentially to be directed at obtaining the services of new players in the market, but as he revealed to The Athletic‘s David Ornstein, Ozil has no intention of making that wish of theirs come true.
He intends to stay at the Emirates to the last day of his contract, believing he can still help the club.
