Arsenal won their first game of the season this weekend, beating West Ham 3-1 at the Emirates, but Unai Emery didn’t get to gloat after the match. Instead, he was dealing with a Mesut Ozil “situation.” The German midfielder was not in the matchday squad — Emery said he was ill, citing “catarrh” — but others, including my ESPN Brazil colleague Joao Castelo-Branco, suggested he pulled out after finding out he was destined for the bench.
It’s still unclear as to what’s going on but it’s evident that this hasn’t been handled well. As of Monday lunchtime, Ozil has said nothing. Snarky counts of the number of matches the German midfielder has missed through “illness” started popping up all over the papers. (In case you’re wondering: seven since Jan. 1, 2017, spread out over four occasions.)
While perhaps entirely honest, Emery’s explanation didn’t help matters.
“Two days ago, I spoke with him about things tactically for this match and the last match,” he said on Sunday. “And he said to me he was sick two days ago. Yesterday — Friday — after my conversation on Thursday, he continued to stay off sick.”
Asked if he was planning to play Ozil in a different role against West Ham, he replied: “Maybe.”
It may just be words but Emery’s language can just as easily lend itself to the opposite interpretation. Manager discusses tactics with star player, covering previous game (when he was poor) and next game (where “maybe” he would make changes). Player tells manager he’s sick, and then he “stays off” sick.
A better way to communicate, if Ozil is indeed simply ill and Castelo-Branco’s story is incorrect, would be for Emery to leave out the tactical discussion and simply say: “He’s sick with blahblahblah. The doctor visited him. He’s not cleared to play.”
That’s what you do if you want to knock this story on its head. Of course, it only works if this is what actually happened.
It may be — and yes, I’m speculating here — that Ozil is simply hung over from a rough summer. First, there was the contract dispute. Then the meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for which he was castigated in his native Germany. Then came the disastrous World Cup and the harsh criticism that followed. Now, Ozil has a new manager and two defeats to start the season.
He has a ton on his plate and maybe he just needs a little break. That’s fine and totally understandable. But if that’s the case, own it.
“Like a new signing” is one of those cliches that clubs throw out when a gifted player returns from a long injury layoff or a period of sustained under-performance. In that sense, Ousmane Dembele could be “like a new signing” for Barca, given that he missed the first half of last season and did little in the second half.
He scored Barcelona’s only goal on Saturday in the 1-0 win at Valladolid and you rather sense that this is the year he either goes to the next level and establishes himself as a reliable starter or he becomes the sort of expensive mistake that gets off-loaded and, perhaps, even comes back to haunt you later. Fact is, Dembele only turned 21 in May and never asked for the €100 million plus price tag. He should be given time to grow and develop, but that’s not how football works for those in his situation.
Oh, and while we’re at it, yes, the pitch at Valladolid was appalling, as this picture of Jordi Alba (with accompanying Sid Lowe joke) clearly shows.