Mesut Ozil may have saved Gunnersaurus, by offering to pay the dinosaur mascot’s wages, but he can’t buy a place in his current team. Poor Ozil, and Gunnersaurus, Arsenal football club has decided, there is no place for you, at all.
The German playmaker has not featured in any competition since March 7, but resisted attempts by the club to offload him this summer as he still makes £350,000-a-week to never play. Since the restart, he has not even been included in any of Mikel Arteta’s match day squads.
Ozil started Arteta’s first 10 Premier League games prior to the coronavirus shut down, but he refused to take the same paycut that the rest of the first team did. Ozil is reportedly determined to see out the rest of his contract at the Emirates club, making this stand-off even more difficult and divisive.
Clearly, his time at the team is up, but there is no easy short-term solution; especially now that the summer transfer window has closed.
Another notable omission from the squad is Sokratis, who is in the final year of his deal, and being linked with a move away. Below you will find a list of the full team.
Arsenal FC Europa League Group Stages Squad
Attack: Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe
Midfield: Dani Ceballos, Willian, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka
Defense: Hector Bellerin, Gabriel, Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi, Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari, David Luiz, Sead Kolasinac, Kieran Tierney
Goalkeeping: Bernd Leno, Runar Runarsson, Matt Macey, James Hillson, Dejan Iliev
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.