Mesut Ozil criticises Arsenal over pay-cut row and insists he's going nowhere

Mesut Ozil has said he refused to take a pay cut during lockdown because Arsenal did not give enough information about where the savings would be going, as he insisted that he has no intention of leaving the club this summer.

Ozil, Arsenal’s highest-paid player, did not play a single minute for Mikel Arteta’s side after the restart and the club’s executives are hoping to offload his £350,000-a-week wages in this summer window.

The 31 year-old’s contract expires in June 2021 and, in an interview with The Athletic, he said the length of his deal “should be respected by everyone”.

Ozil said he had turned down a pay cut during football’s suspension because the players were rushed into it and faced “a lot of pressure” without consultation.

Arsenal have since announced that 55 members of staff will be made redundant because of the financial impact of the pandemic, although the club is still investing in the squad over the coming weeks.

“Possibly the decision affected my chances on the pitch, I don’t know,” said Ozil. “But I am not afraid to stand up for what I feel is right - and when you see what has happened now with the jobs, maybe I was.”

Upon announcing the redundancies, Arsenal said they face more long-lasting reductions in their revenues than had been hoped earlier in the pandemic.

Ozil’s enormous wages have made it incredibly difficult for Arsenal to find another club willing to sign him before the end of his deal. As it stands, Arsenal’s best hope of offloading the playmaker may be a loan deal in which they still pay a significant part of his wages.

“I will decide when I go, not other people,” said Ozil. “I didn’t sign for two or three years, I signed for four and that should be respected by everyone.”

Having struggled for game time under Unai Emery, Ozil started the first 10 Premier League games following the appointment of Arteta, his former team-mate, in December.

Arteta never fully expanded on his reasons for dropping Ozil after lockdown but did say his exclusion was for “pure football reasons”. Arteta also spoke about wanting players who respect the club’s values and show they are “100 per cent committed to our culture”.

Ozil told The Athletic he was not “given a chance” to show what he can do after the restart and said selection issues should “mainly be decided on the pitch”.

“You don’t play 10 games in a row if you’re unfit, not good enough or don’t behave well,” he said. “If I played these games badly and was then left out completely for that reason then I might understand, but this was not the case.”