Mikel Arteta accepts blame for 'failing' in his management of Mesut Ozil after German blasts Arsenal's 'loyalty'
Mikel Arteta has said he takes full responsibility for Mesut Ozil’s ongoing exclusion from the Arsenal team and admitted that he has “failed” in his management of the club’s highest-paid player.
Arteta has left Ozil out of his Premier League and Europa League squads and has not selected the 32 year-old in a competitive match since March.
The Arsenal manager said his “conscience is very calm” on the Ozil situation and insisted that the decision to exclude the playmaker is based purely on footballing reasons.
Ozil had earlier said his “loyalty and allegiance” to Arsenal has not been reciprocated by the club. In a statement released a few hours before Arteta’s press conference, Ozil said he was saddened by the situation and added that “loyalty is hard to come by nowadays”.
Arteta said he has maintained a “really high” level of communication with Ozil and that he has always been straightforward with the midfielder, whose £350,000-a-week wages are a major drain on club finances.
“My job is to get the best out of every player, to contribute to the team performance,” Arteta said ahead of Arsenal’s Europa League match against Rapid Vienna on Thursday. “Here I feel at the moment, today, that I have failed.
“I want the best possible Mesut for the team. And in some moments I was able to get close to that, and at the moment I have not been able to do it because I have to make the decision to leave him out of the squad.
“Honestly I take full responsibility. I have to be the one getting the best out of the players. It is my responsibility. It is nothing related to any behaviour or the pay cuts. It’s not true. It’s my decision, if someone has to blame me - and it will happen when we lose football matches - [it is] my responsibility.”
Earlier this year Ozil hinted that his exile from the team could be linked to his refusal to accept a pay cut during lockdown, when the vast majority of the squad agreed to reductions. Arteta strongly denied any suggestions that the pay-cuts episode has had an influence on his team selection.
“What I can say from my side is that it is just a football decision,” said Arteta. “My conscience is very calm because I have been really fair with him. My level of communication with him has been really high and we know what to expect with each other.”
In his statement, published on social media earlier on Wednesday, Ozil wrote: “I'm really deeply disappointed by the fact that I have not been registered for the Premier League season for the time being,” Ozil said.
“Upon signing my new contract in 2018, I pledged my loyalty and allegiance to the club that I love, Arsenal, and it saddens me that this has not been reciprocated. As I have just found out, loyalty is hard to come by nowadays.”
Meanwhile, Ainsley Maitland-Niles has said it was a “good job” he listened to Arteta earlier in the summer, when he was considering leaving the club.
Maitland-Niles ultimately chose to stay after winning back his place in the team.
“There was never a rocky relationship between us,” Maitland-Niles said. “It was just he demanded more from me than I was demanding from myself. He told me that and I had to work to get back into the team.”
