Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Ally McCoist believes someone in the Arsenal dressing room has attempted to ‘damage’ the reputation of Mesut Ozil following the leaked news that the playmaker is refusing a pay cut.
Ozil is among three Arsenal players who have rejected the 12.5% reduced salary as the club attempts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The Gunners became the first Premier League club to agree a wage reduction with their squad this week, with the pay cut set to take place from April 2020 to March 2021.
Targets have been set for the players to be repaid, but highest earner, Ozil – who pockets £350,000 a week – is not one of those players to agree to the terms, but neither of the other three have yet to be publicly named.
McCoist told talkSPORT: “It says a lot about the quality of team-mate that he’s dealing with because he’s effectively got a snitch in his dressing room.
Ozil has played just 71 minutes of Premier League football in 2019/20
“No matter what you think about Mesut Ozil I think it’s completely out of order that a private conversation regarding a wage reduction has been made public.
“It’s been made public for a reason – to make him look bad. That’s the only reason it’s been made public, I think.
“Straight away, taking the issue of the wage reduction to one side, he’s got a problem with someone in that dressing room or somebody at that club, of that there is absolutely no doubt.
“You’re 100 per cent right, I’ve read so many good things about Mesut Ozil, what he’s willing to do and what he’s done for charities all over the place.
“Do you know something? When you’ve told me the full story there, they get it all back, 12.5 per cent if it’s Champions League, 7.5 per cent if they reach the Europa League in the next two years.
Mesut Ozil has refused to take a pay cut
“If you’re an Arsenal player of any standing at all, you must at least think you’re going to get 7.5 per cent back and must take your chances.
“But I think it says more about what’s going on within the club at this moment in time.
“Could you imagine a story like that coming out at Liverpool or Manchester City at this moment in time regarding one of the players? It just wouldn’t happen because they are solid as a team, solid as a unit.
“I think it tells you more about Arsenal and indeed maybe Mesut Ozil’s standing in that dressing room that somebody has tried to damage him.”
Ozil has been very charitable over the years alongside his wife Amine.
His agent Dr Erkut Sogut revealed last year that Ozil’s acts of kindness include:
- paying for 1,0000 vital operations for children across the world
- feeding 100,000 homeless people at 16 refugee camps in Turkey and Syria
- paying £240,000 to fund operations for sick kids in Brazil
- working for children’s charity Rays of Sunshine
