I Just Don't Think You Understand (an appreciation of a flawed genius)...

Why do we support a football club? Why do we attend football matches? It's the emotion; the escapism from the drudgery of daily life. And it's in the hope of seeing success, of course, but if at the same time we get to witness memorable football, then that counts for so much more. And for me the thought of seeing Mesut Ozil in the flesh was worth the entrance money alone. To be able to watch him gliding around the pitch, weaving his magic... the vision he possessed, coupled with the ability to make the difficult look easy. For me, he turned football into an art form. 

Here's a background:

Over the years, Arsenal have made a relatively small number of what might be regarded as 'marquee' signings. These days, with the help of almost unlimited funds, the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City have been spending hundreds of millions of pounds attracting genuine world stars, as economics and television money have made England the destination of choice for so many of the world's best footballers. Manchester United had already been doing that for years, of course, and recently Liverpool have joined that elite group. But Arsenal have almost always dined from a lower table.

I'm not talking here about 'regular' signings who ended up becoming world stars (like Thierry Henry), but about players who were already UK or world stars before they came to Arsenal. And I'm not going to go back to the 1930s, when Arsenal were known as The Bank of England Club and managed to attract the likes of Alex James and Ted Drake. I'm sticking to more recent times, and specifically to those that this middle-aged fan can remember since he started supporting the club in the late 60s. And all I've come up with is:

Alan Ball - 1971; Malcolm Macdonald - 1976; Charlie Nicholas - 1983; David Seaman - 1989; and Ian Wright - 1990

And that's possibly it. Not a long list, and certainly not from the top echelons of world football. Arsenal mainly relied on bringing through youth players, or finding bargains lower down the ladder.

And then, thanks to the forward-thinking views of David Dein (and, interestingly, the presence of Ian Wright at the club), Arsenal signed Dennis Bergkamp for a club record £11.25m in the summer of 1995. Here, finally, was a world class footballer rocking up at Highbury - albeit one who was seeking to rebuild his career after a rocky time at Inter Milan. It took him a little time to settle in, but we could all see how he transformed the team; and so it proved as the years wore on.

The season after that, of course, Arsene Wenger became Manager, and thus began the most sustained period of success in club history. But for the most part Wenger's signings were astute buys who he helped mould into superb players. I've seen it written that he turned good players into great ones, and great ones into world class performers, and that was essentially his modus operandi. It was his good fortune that he inherited George Graham's famous Back Four, and also Bergkamp, but it was no fluke that he managed to put together no less than three great teams in the 10 or so years from 1997 onwards.

I've picked out 10 of my favourite Wenger buys from a considerably longer list - Vieira, Anelka, Overmars, Petit, Henry, Pires, Ljungberg, Fabregas, van Persie and Cazorla. It's worth noting that these were either players with potential, or something to prove, but not established world stars. And he also brought a number of young players through the ranks to play with them; most notably, perhaps, Ashley Cole. But I suppose that the most momentous of all his signings - the one that sent most ripples around English football - was the coup that saw Sol Campbell arrive from our enemies up the road. Now that's a day that will live long in the memory!

And after that... well, we had a long wait due to the stadium move, and lost a lost of talent over those years - the likes of Cole, Pires, Henry himself, Gilberto, Hleb, Adebayor, Nasri, Fabregas and van Persie. And then, right at the end of the Summer 2013 Transfer Window, came some real excitement. 

I can still recall the back end of Wenger's interview with Sky Sports after our late September 1-0 win over Tottenham at The Emirates, when in response to the final question (regarding possible signings) he said, with a glint in his eye: 'Maybe we'll have a good surprise for you.' And boy, wasn't it just that, as just days afterwards came the announcement that Arsenal had signed Mesut Ozil from no less than Real Madrid (much to the chagrin of Cristiano Ronaldo, I recall). The 'assist king', a world star, had agreed to join us - for an incredible 50 million Euros!

Even at my age, I was incredibly excited at the thought of seeing him in the red and white, and this was a level of player who I don't think we could ever have dreamed would come to the Arsenal any time soon. The purse strings had been loosened once more.

Arsenal world went crazy! Soon, fans were adding umlauts to their Twitter handles, and new 'umlauted' merchandise was appearing. I personally bought a red t-shirt with Gööner written on it. And Ozil soon added to the bandwagon with his patented Twitter hashtag '#YaGunnersYa'.

We could barely wait for his debut, which came at Sunderland a few days later. And in the 11th minute came his first 'assist', for Olivier Giroud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPIf08RxW2E. He was involved in all three goals in his first home game, a 3-1 win over our old friends Stoke City. And he scored his first goal in the Champions League at home to Napoli - taken with typical style - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15iqj8. He combined particularly well with Aaron Ramsey, and made many, many chances for Olivier Giroud.

The following season, Ozil was joined at the club by Alexis Sanchez, and the two clicked almost immediately. The following couple of seasons saw his best output for Arsenal, and his partnership with Alexis was a joy to behold. Here were two world class stars on the same wavelength, and we were treated to some truly memorable moments. Remember how the two of them tore Manchester United apart one Sunday afternoon as we strolled to a 3-0 win? In the second of the two seasons that he and Alexis were together, Ozil contributed no less than 11 assists and two goals in one single 12-match stretch!

Ozil was setting records not just for assists, but for chances created. He set up no less than 10 in a game against Southampton - but that game ended 0-0; evidence perhaps that he was being held back by the lack of sufficient players of his stellar quality. Nonetheless, he finished the 2015-16 Premier League season with 19 assists, just one short of Thierry Henry's record. Oh, and another FA Cup Winners medal. And the memes started - 'How may I assist you?' was everywhere!

It wasn't just what he did, but his impeccable timing in doing so. Time and again choosing his moment to express his genius; like the assist for Welbeck's extra-time winner against Leicester in 2016, and his involvement - no less than three times - in what for me is possibly the greatest team goal of all time against the same side a couple of years later; the flick, the stepover, and finally the unselfish gift to Aubameyang. Or THAT goal vs Ludogorets:

Here are just some of his goals and assists. They set my spine tingling watching them again. Enjoy...:

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/10155826479002713

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/130338388910024

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/530243580838448

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos/233963061308876

Or if you want to remind yourself of the way he could influence matches...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItDhyBwUpnc

And if you've got 20 minutes, here are all of his Arsenal goals and assists: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVFeCCUtbWo

When Arsene Wenger left Arsenal, one direct result was the effect it had on Ozil. Gone was the 'arm round the shoulder', and Arsenal had a new, more pragmatic type of coach. Ozil struggled under Unai Emery, and had his run-ins with him. This coach had less time to indulge his charges - and must have found it difficult to even make himself understood at times. Certainly, we fans were often confused trying to work out what he was trying to achieve. Ozil suffered, becoming more peripheral and even left out of the squad for long periods despite being fit. 

And there was no shortage of controversy - the perhaps ill-advised meeting with Turkish President Erdogan - he and Ilkay Gundogan were subjected to diabolical abuse during Germany's international matches, before Ozil walked away from Die Mannschaft in disgust - and the bizarre worldwide response to his speaking out against the actions of the PR of China against the Uyghur Moslems.

And then there was all the other personal stuff. Ozil contributed quietly to the community, handing out vast sums of money to Charity - especially to sick and disadvantaged children - via his Foundation. All this went very much under the radar, because it didn't suit the narrative, but other stuff hit the headlines in a big way. 

There was the car-jacking incident, the pandemic pay cut issue and the matter of Gunnersaurus's salary. Plus, despite being in favour for a considerable time following the arrival of Mikel Arteta, Ozil suddenly found himself completely excluded from the First Team from the beginning of Project Restart. We will perhaps never know why this came about - perhaps there were external reasons, but perhaps Arteta felt that he wasn't exerting himself enough (the so-called 'non-negotiables'), or had become too much of a distraction - but there can be no doubt in anybody's mind that this was a terrible waste of a massive talent.

Either way, Mesut Ozil polarised opinion. You were either a lover or a hater; you weren't allowed any middle ground. From my point of view, I loved him (well, almost all of the time; there were rare occasions when even I got a bit fed up with his apparent lack of effort - but there was always a case in my mind for his Manager to to tell him that he was always going to be the first name on the team sheet, and the other 9 would have to do his running for him). Look, he wasn't lazy per se, but he didn't like the defensive side of the game and burst into life when Arsenal had the ball.

Whatever else is being said about Mesut Ozil, nobody can deny that here was one of the most skilful and talented players ever to wear an Arsenal shirt; as brilliant - and effective - as the likes of Liam Brady, Dennis Bergkamp and Cesc Fabregas in my opinion, and that's high praise indeed. Perhaps football has changed, and his like have been replaced by more athletic types, but it's been clear what the team has been missing from the moment that Emile Smith Rowe was promoted to the team - somebody who can take the ball on the half-turn, get 'between the lines', look forward instead of back, and make those defence-splitting runs and passes that were missing in the boring, functional Arsenal of Autumn 2020. 

I can still recall being so enthralled by Ozil that I would gasp with delight at what he was capable of - those tricks, flicks and feints - and I once jumped to my feet and shouted out 'Mesut, I want to have your babies!' following one such moment, to general amusement in Block 17 at The Emirates. I will forever miss watching/drooling over him.

Lest we forget, it wasn't his fault that he was offered that massive contract, and whilst he perhaps could have worked harder - although there was little disputing his match running stats - I think that successive Managers could have been considerably more sympathetic to this flawed genius. Despite his output having fallen away towards the end of his time at the club, he nonetheless leaves Arsenal after 254 matches, 44 goals (including a surprising number of headers) and 77 assists (many of them magical).

Nobody can dissuade me from overwhelming feelings of sadness at not having quite seen the consistent best of this precious and under-utilised talent. Thanks for the memories, Mesut.