Pep Guardiola is on a mission, He has started using press conferences and after match interviews to call for protection for this hugely expensive assembly of very talented and skillful players. He is demanding that referees give them protection from the deliberate assaults on them.
We now see many of the great and good journalists agreeing with him because it’s “only a matter of time” before one of the delicate little flowers get their legs broken. And do you know what? Pep is right and so are they. We have seen disgusting attempts to injure them in recent weeks.
These assaults are justified, by some, because less skillful players have to find a way of stopping them,otherwise they get battered. Even “good teams” like Spurs do it, with England’s finest, Kane and Alli, bang at it. Both of these two should have seen straight reds last time they met.
Every team, bar Arsenal and Liverpool perhaps, are at it. They are not going out to be strong and compete ,they are going out to injure. Of course they don’t want to break legs and ruin careers, they just want to hurt them enough to stop them playing well in that particular game. However, because the intention is to hurt, there is a huge chance that this approach leaves the victim with career changing damage. Its like driving past a school at 90 mph and then claiming you didn’t mean to kill the child you ran over, It was an accident, you are not that kind of driver. Dangerous play leads to injury. Simples.
Managers are sending players out to “get in their faces”, “leave some on him” and ” slow him down with physicality” They are asking players to overstep the mark and see how much the referee will let them get away with. They can deny it all they like, claim “its a contact sport, but anyone with half a brain knows what is going on.
Pep and his friendly journalist are right, they should be protected.
But here is where I have a problem, Arsene has been saying this since 2004, when United decided they couldn’t win a game of football, and with Mike Riley’s help, they would kick us off the park. That day they literally kicked José Antonio Reyes out of the game and all the way back to Spain.
In 2008 ,Arsenal were 8 points, clear, playing much like City are now, except with a far thinner and less experience squad. We all know what happened, rotational fouling of Fagregas ,Hleb, RVP and Rosicky was the norm and Eduardo was smashed beyond repair. The injuries bit and we didn’t have anything like the required quality to come in (unlike City). The best football I have seen Arsenal play, was ended by brute force that was sanctioned by the referees.
Was there outrage in the media? Was there bollocks. We ,and specifically Arsene , were told to “man up”. We were told we had a soft center. Were not up for the fight. Were fragile. We were told we were a team of lightweights that were not up to the English game.
Pep Guardiola is 100% right, its disgusting what is happening to his team, but it has been happening to us for 14 years and continues every time we take the field. Ramsey effectively lost two years, Jack for God knows how long, and I suspect we have lost Santi because of the constant assaults on his achilles, Diaby?, and many more.
Where is the outrage from the press been for 14 years?
Pedantic George @arseblagger .
Positively Arsenal 
Rare that I would agree with a Gooner, but you are 100% right about everything you say in your article. Respect.
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Absolutely, spot on, well done. Thanks
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Nail on the head. Yes, the media wont listen to Wenger but Pep is another matter.
Glad the City manager has raised this, he may have some influence in halting some of the more pathetic side of the English game. I suspect Wenger wont be at the club to benefit any changes could take a while, but his successor might. I wouldnt be surprised to see City using expensive lawyers against the powers that be who keep the English game in the dark ages should any of his players get badly hurt, city have their faults in their general approach to the game, but also the power, and influence to hit these people
Just one thing Pep, can you stop Sterling diving?
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There may be no outrage from the desperate sports journalists as they watch their advertising revenues fast disappear, but there was plenty of outrage on the pitch from the pgmobs enlightened and variable game management technique compare Xhaka red cards to fouls and targeted hacks by the medias favourite diving cloggers who are “as good as Messi” (it’s cruel to laugh!) last night, plenty of outrageous attempts by their chosen and favourite cloggers to try and play some Football against the giants of Iceland or Costa Rica – attempts that didn’t amount to much.
Someone I mention no names like Grandmaster of Game Management Riley is so keen on promoting their lucrative Brand that they have literally taken their eye off the Football – because they don’t actually care about the Footy. not an opinion but a and easy simple observation.
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< the season Ramsey was clogged afc were doing quite well…
<< the season when Arshavin had those multiple pelanty shouts ignored in that late season game against Sunderland they were doing quite well…Arshavin took his solace in trifle thereafter and who can blame him?
<< did I ever mention the season where Sanchez got pushed into a pit and it wasn't even called a foul, or a peak Walcott was kicked by a carthorse clogged who was fully exposed against those giants from Iceland, or Rosicky, and neither season affecting injuries were even called fouls…!!!??? Then there was the bruised bone and the more astute amongst you will have noted the inability of the F Word to run thereafter – that one might've been a foul, but no card! Debuchy. Sagna.
No need for any sprinkling of opinion there my friends: It's simply a damning and disgusting r record.
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While I have no desire to see any player injured, I do not want to see the legitimate, rugged, challenges outlawed or players inhibited from going 100% for a tackle or a clearance.
And as Mandy said, if as a manager you want to clamp down on violent play then stop your players feigning injury and deceiving the officials with the aim of getting an opponent booked or sent off.
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What I would prefer to see is the punishment fitting the crime, and that if you recklessly or deliberately injure another player, and they are out for 6 weeks or 6 months, that the penalty for the perpetrator better matches that enforced exclusion from the game. Even the thickest player or his manager would surely get the message if they had to sit out a 6 month ban. As ever rugby union seems to adopt this approach of banning players from any involvement in the game for months at a time.
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good one George. thanks.
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Andy,it’s possible to be right about one thing and wrong about another, But when we analyse being right or wrong, we should do each case individually,Rather than say you do this so your opinion on that is void.
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Pep is right. And the media are backing him. But that doesn’t mean anything will change. I mean, it might for ManCity because as the biggest spenders in the league they are among the favoured of ‘THE BRAND’.
But it won’t change anything substantially. Because the media has the ability to be completely hypocritical in how they look at a thing, as they have no responsibility or desire to talk about a pattern, unless it’s a desired narrative. So you’ll see them make connections of all the ManCity players ever fouled, lie about or brush off when it’s Spurs players doing the same, and ignore, or defame Arsenal and Wenger some other way when that pattern is shown up.
Has no one working in the football reporting business thought there might be a correlation with this proclivity for violence, and England underperforming at tournaments? Of course they have, but this sort of football brings in money for ‘THE BRAND’ where anyone can beat anyone else, as do clickbait articles both hyping up and destroying the English team and manager. It’s about the money silly. And Arsenal and Wenger obviously don’t pay enough.
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Great stuff.
Occurred to me yesterday that had Sanchez responded to Alli’s kick by getting up and kicking him back immediately, with the same or less strength, it would be a 100% guaranteed red, for violent play, an off the ball incident; but the simple truth is Alli had no more intention of playing the ball than if it was 40 yards away.
Maybe that’s just a weird quirk of football. All the same, if you kick someone hard with zero intention of playing the ball, a ref should seriously consider a red. Alli’s crime sheet- for no reds (?)- is ludicrous when compared to Xhaka’s two. Putting it down to coincidence is simply wrong.
For reasons unknown, all refs have been extremely reluctant to send off Spurs players for a few years now, while with Moss and Xhaka he can only be described as extremely willing or keen to do so. Why? Fuck knows.
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I agree – and seeing good players kicked all over the shop is ridiculous. Its getting that fine line right though G, between doing the most to preserve the safety of players, without spoiling the contest.
Pep does not just need to point the finger but ask what he can do to make his own players safer – and one thing ( in my opinion) he could do today is stop Sterling making a meal of any contact.
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Mandy
Why would Pep stop Sterling diving? I haven’t forgotten that the greatest team that ever lived in Barcelona, apart from being fantastic footballers, were all master divers. I’m afraid, although Pep’s vision of football is great, he doesn’t share the same distaste for cheating that Wenger does.
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But Andy, when was the last time you saw Arsenal players dive? As a general rule we don’t do that. If what you say is true, then it should follow that Arsenal players are well protected. Maybe I have no idea of the game of football, but I’d say there is no correlation between the two different things (violent tackles faced, and diving) you seem to want to connect.
Of course you can just reject the premise that Arsenal don’t dive, and the fact that Arsenal are not protected by the refs. (not up to date on this but there is empirical data, not just observational data to support this)
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How does rugby enforce the ‘out till the guy you injure is out’ rule? I’m guessing the rugby community is a lot smaller and more homogenous than the football community. Because I certainly wouldn’t want Koscielny to have to sit out 6 months for a nothing challenge on, say, a young Chelsea forward who barely plays because he and his club doctors declare him unfit to play for such time.
Conversely, I wouldn’t want any other team’s, or even the league’s doctors telling us that an Arsenal player is not injured and has to be cleared to play because the guy who trod on his ankle was Delle Alli.
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Pep will never stop his players diving we’ve seen it at all his clubs.
Managers won’t do it. I wouldn’t expect any coach in any sport to restrict gamesmanship (not the same thing as ruining or attempting to ruin a fellow pro’s career).
VARs has some uses,
let’s observe if there’s a will to use it.
In cricket batsmen can no longer pad up and ruin Test Cricket as a spectacle, the game has been improved thanks to hawkeye.
Football fans tend to like football, skills, thrills , spills, tackles and all the rest.
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Absolutely spot on George. The fake new media have been and still are accomplices of anti-football and the role of the PGMOL in enabling it via game management. Almost all the big journos in the print media and the pundits in the electronic media literally justified or excused the United’s hacking of Reyes and the subsequent breaking of Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey. As our Finsbury is never tired of explaining, the pundits praise the hackers for their grit and manliness, none of which has helped English football from raising itself from the swamp and morass as evident by their repeated failings to footballing Giants like Iceland and Costa Rica.
Now we know the truth; the football media are defined by their worship of mammon not a commitment to fair play and the development of modern, technical football. It’s all about the money. Initially United was the alter of their worship. Now it is City and the billions the sheiks have brought in the PL. My research showed they have spent over £800 million net on transfers in the past 10 years. This does not include the squillions on salaries and agent fees. What could stop this gravy train? The PGMOL allowing the cloggers to main and injure City’s finest assets. I don’t blame Pep one bit for calling on the hacks they have cultivated over the years to show their loyalty to mammon by suddenly discovering that roughing up and hacking more skillful footballers is unfair to the best team in England whose name doesn’t start with an A.
When will they start writing articles letting the biased PGMOL have final say over VAR will simply be putting a bandage over a big, gaping sore in the premier league?
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Well, Shard, let me see what is on offer;
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/3423687/alexis-sanchez-slammed-leicester-fall/
Outrageous tbh – no wonder he left
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An opponent you’ve injured as a result of your foul has a fracture, requires surgery or is guaranteed to be out for x period then I don’t think that is too hard to identify or enforce. I doubt even Chelsea would send one of their youngsters to have his leg plastered for six months on the off-chance Kosc would have an equivalent ban. Jose though – that is tricky.
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Can you also find the link where Walcott admitted to diving!!! I mean the nerve. And of course there was Pires who was a diver because he dove against Portsmouth once. And Eduardo who ‘dove’ over the Celtic keeper and Uefa banned him for 2 matches despite the referee saying he was correct to award the penalty? Filthy diving foreigners playing for that Frenchman the lot of them!
See, like I said, you can choose to reject the premise that Arsenal don’t dive, as well as the fact that Arsenal aren’t protected. Which is what you’ve done (through the use of ONE hardly egregious example – he had the ball thrown at him at that) because that’s the only way your assertion can make sense Andy. Forgive me, but I don’t think this is a debate in good faith if you’re going to use articles like that. Adios.
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Appreciating that players do dive doesn’t negate the ability to spot a call from the Shakoor Rana school of comedy knocks. Did Mike Gatting not like that?
Step forward Anthony Taylor (not for the first time as Arshavin would be happy to confirm Against and not For in this instance, and by the nummber of apps. he gets with AFC – certainly not the last) against Chelsea in the last league game.
If the players diving are taking the piss how is one to describe that!
Not flattering, i think i’ll take it that far if that’s ok with everyone.
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oh oh oh
Evil Anti-St.Jacky Wilshere left his leg in to a late lunge (most if not many would always have called a foul) and that was the worsest dive in the history of dives!
At least, since Eduardo skipped over another late lunge.
Same old Arsenal!
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At the outset I was not talking about Arsenal players Shard as I think we are rather better than most in the diving and theatrical stakes – however if I was asked my opinion, with no choice between yes or no in my answer, then Id admit yes Arsenal players dive too.
You don’t like Sanchez, fair enough – let’s try Jack last week.
http://arsenalist.com/f/2017-18/arsenal-vs-chelsea/jack-wilshere-booked-for-diving.html
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A bad dive from our players was that of Robert Pires at home to Portsmouth in the invincible year. As we were losing 0-1 at the time and we scored the resulting pen, it was obviously very significant
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Except Andy, I never asked you to answer a yes or no. If you note, in my original statement I said, ‘as a general rule’ we don’t dive. Not that we never do. So when I say, ‘we don’t dive’ I am talking about a trend. A pattern.
Why are we talking about diving? Because you say if reckless and violent tackles are to be cut out then managers should stop their players from diving.
I have a problem with that correlation because in Arsenal’s case, which is the one I can speak on with the most certainty, there is certainly no correlation between us diving less and us being protected more from bad tackles. (You indirectly sought to challenge this notion through that Sun article)
Not to the immediate point, but I also have a problem with that statement, because once again, you want to absolve the referees (and their shady organisation) from any responsibility, and put it all on the players and managers to self regulate. Right after they can do that and sing kumbaya, we can fire all referees because we wouldn’t need them. After all, we’ve all played football/cricket/basketball on the streets among friends without any officials. I’d be happy if that day ever came, but you know that is a pipe dream. If they are allowed to get away with diving, and with tackles that go beyond the norms of safety, the players and managers will do it. It is up to the refs to stop it, really their raison d’etre. That they don’t do it has nothing to do with players diving and everything to do with them not doing their job and not using all the tools they have at their disposal to do it. They are supposed to punish diving. Not use it as an excuse to allow violent play.
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The only one that sends a shudder up my spine is Eboue in the CL final – free kick on the edge of the Barca box from which Sol headed it in.
CAN YOU IMAGINE THE FUSS?
I always remember our dives more than the opposition. Original sin and all that.
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Believe it or not Andy, it bothers me when Arsenal win through cheating. I almost mentioned Eboue as a guy who did often dive, or ‘go down easy’ if we’re to use euphemisms.
That’s actually how I know we are a clean team. Because I don’t feel uneasy very often watching us. We don’t dive (as a general rule rather than an absolute one) and we don’t go in recklessly (ditto)
I want us to win the game fair and square, and usually, when we lose a game fair and square, I have no problem. I don’t even feel too bad about it even if we played poorly. It happens. It’s sport.
As it turns out, we are often the victim of cheating and bad tackles rather than perpetrators. And this annoys me no end not simply because it prevents us from winning/doing better, but because it outrages the idea of sport as I know it.
So I am completely with you in wanting an end to diving. I simply, but vehemently, disagree that it is the responsibility of every individual manager to curb diving, and that this in turn will automatically cut down violent tackles that their players face.
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Shard my point at 11.13 above to George on the same issue agrees with you. Stopping diving will not stop violent or reckless play. The point however is stopping diving is something a manager can do now, i.e. Pep Guardiola can himself do now with his own players, to assist referees to differentiate when a player has been badly fouled and injured, in which a card probably should be brandished, and when a player is pretending to be injured and when the sole intention is to get an opponent punished.
When Sterling goes down clutching his leg and rolling around I do not know if he has been genuinely injured or if it is just another in his long series of cheating acts. Is a referee likely to view the situation differently ?
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I’m a little surprised that City haven’t had more protection. Doesn’t exactly fit with my impression of them being a team who do well though nothing like Utd Fergie, title charging Leicester or latter day Spurs well.
We can discount the two Spurs reds on them, but there must have been another 5 or so bad ones on them in addition to that.
Best explanation I have is that the idea exists in our football psyche that foul is fair in terms of using extra aggression and fouls against a superior football side, and our refs also share and represent that idea.
More nefariously, there is little doubt that Scudamore is intensely interested in the premier league brand and product; views the aggression, and leniency of refs, as part of the USP; and ,while business is fantastic, has no reason to consider any alteration.
Scudamore and the Premier league are effectively the bosses of pgmol, in charge of hiring and firing whoever leads that organisation, and paying for 90% of its funding, and so he no doubt exerts a massive influence over what type of refereeing and football we play.
If Riley (ha) or any successor ever went renegade and decided to try change football by protecting players more and foulers less, applying the laws more stringently…presumably they would go the same way as Philip Don, first head of Pgmol, apparently a hardliner who wanted rules followed closely, and who supposedly fell foul for that reason of some powerful (maybe just one and his followers) managers who pushed to have him replaced. ‘We’ll have suspensions every week’ was one of the main cries. ‘Fans want to see top players’
That brings us to clubs and managers. I’m guessing they ultimately have a mechanism for replacing Scudamore if they aren’t happy with him. They would need a majority to do so, and that majority would need strong motivation or reason to do so.
He delivers money wise and, crucially, it seems there will always be a majority of clubs who prefer the less strict refereeing style. Quite simply, they benefit from it, even if not by any large margin overall. If you aren’t aiming to play technical skilful football, it’s in your interest to have refs who are lenient on foul play.
With the similar standard teams around you, the expectation would be that you more or less cancel each other out over the season, in other words you both have roughly the same ideas and approach, a fair fight; with those better or much better you get an improved chance on the day, though much depends on what the ref allows you to do. But anyway, no motivation exists to call for stricter officiating.
The idea that extra aggression and, in reality, fouls, are useful in trying to beat a better footballing team is not a fanciful one; the key however is that it is only really as likely to succeed as a ref is lenient. More than the aim to injure is the aim to inhibit, making good players less willing to try things, fearful of getting smashed, extra fearful in particular situations where they can’t see the opposition or take evasive action.
Spurs appear to have been built and coached with a keen eye on exactly how things are with officials here, and perhaps even the overall football psyche here,too. The hypocrisy is that they also indulge fully in diving and every other dirty trick, but in fact that is entirely consistent with all teams who adopt an anything-to-win attitude.
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Aah..anicoll.. That makes much more sense.
Is a referee likely to take a player rolling around more seriously if they don’t do it all the time?
My answer would be, all other things being equal, yes. (Arsenal are less than equal – banned smiley)
But I’m not sure that is a good thing. Sterling may be a diver, but could also have his leg broken by a clogger. A referee is supposed to punish based on the incident, not on the reaction. You can make allowances for him being human, but not excuse away the bad refereeing. So, ok, I agree with you more now, but I still think that is not the primary action that needs to be taken.
Apart from that, I think referees also tend to punish ‘correct’ behaviour when it comes to tackling. If you’re always barrelling in and committing fouls like you’re a ‘hard man’, you tend to get away with it because it’s just Paul Scholes being Paul Scholes..
And that I feel is a direction from the league. Which harms player safety because it encourages rough play.
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The funny thing about Scholes was that he couldn’t actually tackle. And this became a commentators joke. Yet referees still indulged it!
Remarkable!
For complete and utter contrast with an attacking midfielder who could tackle please refer to Rosicky (no jokes there unless we are talking about the new Woman’s England Foitball Manager and former arse plundit there joking about how he’d kick the player who could tackle for making a no look pass (i.e. For Playing Football and being a better footballer then, say, Paul Scholes…).
Phil Neville – much heckled and abused player to failed coach to bleating arse northern Rileyball favouring bleeb commentator to the FA’s selection for England Manager.
Mike Basset would be spitting out his afternoon tea and biscuits at this Carry On.
It’s a BRAND appointment.
These inept comedians don’t give a flying **** about the FOOTBALL (Vic Ackers anyone?). As can be observed. And heard by their own words. With repetition.
Please don’t shoot the messengers.
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I’ve just seen the confirmation of his signing by Ozil. Bloody marvellous. One of the best players I’ve seen in my time supporting The Arsenal. I just love watching him do his stuff and I can’t wait for my next fix on Saturday.
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Jaysus! Even if we are a team of divers, which we aren’t, the data shows we get decidely less penalties than our top-4 rivals. Am still on the road and my figures are not close at hand.
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stopping diving, cheating, reckless tackles etc can all be stopped almost instantly by the FA and the PGMOL, they actually have a dive panel, they have a retrospective panel too, but they choose over and over not to use them, not to punish players, we have even refs saying they ignored bad fouls and dives by players “to let them self destruct”, yeah that is why.
Not only should the FA and the PGMOL use the dive panel and the retrospective panel way more, they should massively increase the punishments they can hand out. We have seen with their inaction and under use of these panels, that the FA and the Refs, who should have no reason what so ever to allow diving, cheating, dangerous tackles, thuggish play, for some reason are ignoring their duty and are unwilling to actually do their jobs correctly. as I always say on this subject – WHY, that is the question that needs to asked and answered, Why are the FA and PGMOL allowing this to go on, when they have not only the means, and power, to stop it happening, its actually their duty and jobs to stop it. So again Why are they not doing so.
so never mind the media ignoring it, why the feck are the FA and PGMOL ignoring it, in fact helping it to remain in the game.
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ha ha ha, AST trying to distance themselves from their media whore tim not so nice but dim payton slagging off Arsenal in the LES,
ast will still vote the cunt in again all the same. what a shower of stupid cunts they are
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transfer window over, and I must say the glowing goodbye messages to Walcott, Giroud and even Coquelin from the official Arsenal twitter feed, are in stark contrast to the message the put out when Alexis went. for me it suggests some of the rumors about him not being liked just might be true.
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Ozil signing takes the edge off Walcott, OG and Le Coq
glad he has signed he is important to how we play
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Eddy: Why?
Do the Powers That Be (FA & PGMOL) have an interest in a fair league?
Do they have an interest in punishing divers and cheats?
Do they have an interest in punishing thugs whose only interest is to hurt and intimidate more technical players?
Do they have an interest in rewarding modern, technical football?
Do they have an interest in making the correct calls for penalties and offside goals?
A negative or affirmative answer is all you need.
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“making good players less willing to try things”
“The hypocrisy is that they also indulge fully in diving and every other dirty trick, but in fact that is entirely consistent with all teams who adopt an anything-to-win attitude.”
Great comment highlighting key characters considerations that I am too stupid and slow to describe and articulate. Thanks Rich.
On reflection I did laugh: in spite of all of that Tottenham have still won sweet FA!
Hehe.
Apparently more then one hack got paid to write that Kane is as good as Messi. I suppose that it was all worth it in the end, for someone’s agent or other.
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< minus "characters" this phone just writes things itself! A good craftsman/coach never blames his tools.
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Off topic:
Mourinho on Sanchez:
“He tried hard but the game was not for him. In the 2nd half I gave him a position so he could be closer to Lukaku but he was dropping too much to try hard.”
Therefore he started Sanchez around about the no.8 a position on the pitch from where even Sanchez’s loudest and keenest supporters (hello!) before he downed tools did not enjoy to see him clog up the midfield. Everyone as in everyone wanted him on the pitch around about the same spot he was during the recent NLD – in the box!
Priceless.
I’m beating the floor with my fist here to try and distract from the stomach cramps. Even funnier when we consider tha Pogba who Juve played at ten was consequently pushed even further back – but he ain’t no Cazorla!
Took Sanchez about a season and a half, more if we count the recovery window after the “push”, around about the time he made Messi cry, before he started ignoring his coaches at AFC. I guess.
I’m going to enjoy texting the evil Manc brother in law if this carries on.
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Great news with Ozil. Would have found any other outcome hard to take.
Wanted badly to believe the signs and signals from him meant he had a strong attachment to the club, type that could see a player turn down more money and even more chance of trophies (Bayern, for instance) elsewhere. I wasn’t sure.
Now, as well as getting to see him do his stuff for years more, there’s that extra bit of enjoyment in knowing he’s for real and chose to commit to the club at a such a key moment for us and him.
Also lets me believe more in the story I enjoyed from disputed Mourinho book. It goes that Mendes, Mourinho and Ozil’s agent at the time were pushing him to switch agents and join Mendes. So Ozil said goodbye to his agent and picked himself a new one
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Billy Dunmore
@Dunmoreorless
8h8 hours ago
Never underestimate manners. PEA takes his glove off to shake Wenger‘s hand. Lovely stuff.
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Elneny: “Now there is nobody focusing on signing a new contract or leaving, all of us now will be focused on the next part of the season because we know that its an important period for us”
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Amen to that! This is truth right here!
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See the wife beating dogger is expressing his opinions on this in The Mirror, in his stoneaged way.
Won’t even link it,.
If people want to dog with consenting adults, that’s their business, but in an age where grid girls are being taken away from F1, similar things are happening in darts, and the film industry, why is this person even given media time, why not seek the views of men of intelligence in football and other matters, Dennis , Zola, Pires, Van Basten , Klinsmann, Overmars, rather than this idiot , unless of course there is an agenda at play.
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Signing Ozil is brilliant, a real statement, and a fuck you to the media, one of the best players I have seen wear the shirt. I wish the other player so dear to me could also,sign a renewal, but sadly, it seems his injuries will prevent that
Ozil, A brave man , I am sure he had other offers, maybe even more money, at teams where the media would leave him alone and refs would protect him. He chose Arsenal, Wenger and any successor the club will chose will embrace his unique talents.
Danke weltmeister
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