Former Arsenal manager, Unai Emery has revealed that he was never impressed by the application and mentality of Mesut Ozil while he held the reins at the North London club.
Emery said Ozil’s talent could never be questioned but said that the former Germany international never showed enough in terms of commitment to the cause.
The Spaniard further said Ozil’s laid back approach rubbed off negatively on the rest of his teammates who railed against the possibility of Ozil being installed as club captain.
“In the end he has to look at himself,” Emery told the Daily Mail.
“At his attitude and his commitment.
“I tried my utmost to help Ozil. Throughout my career, talented players have been my favourites and they have played at their best or close to their best with me.
“I was always positive with him in terms of wanting him to be involved, but then the attitude that he adopted, and the commitment levels, well, they weren’t enough.
“One of the captains could possibly have been Ozil but the dressing room didn’t want him to be captain.
“His level of commitment was not that of someone who deserved to be captain, and that’s not what I decided, that’s what the players decided,” Emery said.
Emery then went on to describe a landmark moment during his Arsenal reign- when the club lost 4-1 to Chelsea in last year’s Europa League final – as an example of Ozil’s alleged lack of commitment.
Emery said he had no issue with Ozil’s performance in the game but was disappointed when Ozil was the only player not to turn up for an individual talk with his manager the following day.
“In that game the commitment was there,” Emery said.
“We got back to London at eight in the morning and I went home, slept three hours, and then went back to Colney.
“I had meetings with all the players that day. Individual half-hour chats with each one. Only Ozil didn’t want to come.
“I don’t know [why]. He didn’t come. And that’s what we’re saying when we talk about commitment.
“When the commitment is 100 per cent then everyone comes,” he concluded.
Emery has since been replaced, first by Freddie Ljungberg in the interim and then by Mikel Arteta took over on a longer term basis.
