Another thing about this whole Özil saga is how short memories are

Back when he was in the process of renewing, people were desperate for him to sign. There were even narratives created about how he has been doing great PR to manage the fans while he's going to leave on a free

And then when he signed the deal, we all celebrated. No one at the time was claiming it was a waste or that we shouldn't do it.

We demand endless loyalty from a player but we appreciate it so little when we actually get it and even dismiss it like "oh it's just for money"

Then we conveniently forgot that he didn't play as frequently in the few months after signing (or even much in the world cup) because he had a back issue

He was made a scapegoat and faced so much racism that he was made to feel like he didn't even belong in his home in Germany

He comes back to London, the other place where he feels like he's at home, and has to deal with a club management that somehow wants him and Ramsey frozen out

And when he did play, it's with a manager who set the team up in a way that it negated everything good that Özil offers

And we've somehow let that time convince us that he's past it and can't play at the highest level (and only cares about getting his money). When his drop in performance is hugely down to Emery's tactics which basically removed build up through the middle https://twitter.com/Worville/status/1153952340866752512?s=19

When Arteta came in, he was ever present in those games before the lockdown and was actually an effective part of our attacking play.

After the pay cut dispute, he's frozen out. But magically the narrative is somehow again - he's not performing, or has a bad attitude, or is lazy

I suppose I should have expected people pretending that the contract should have never been offered because he's past it

It's happened before too with promising young players (Like Denilson/Vela), when they didn't fulfill potential, they became deadwood we shouldn't have renewed

And even now with Aubameyang. We're all so pleased he renewed.

But if his performance drops in a year or two, I imagine just as many will suddenly act like they always knew this was a bad contract that should have never been offered as they already knew he wouldn't be good