Former Arsenal star Ray Parlour admits he feels sympathy for Mesut Ozil after the club’s highest earner was outed as one of three players who refused to take a pay cut.
In an attempt to offset the financial ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic Arsenal chiefs requested that the players accept a 12.5% reduction but guaranteed any losses would be fully repaid should the team secure Champions League qualification.
Ozil, however, refused the initial proposal, although he could yet agree to take a bigger cut, but Parlour feels the World Cup winner, who earns £350,000-a-week, has been hung out to dry.
He told talkSPORT: ‘He’s on 350k-a-week but I look it as Arsenal’s mistake to give him the money. You’re never going to turn it down, that shouldn’t come into it really.
‘I do believe if there is three or four players then they should all be named. Why’s it only Mesut Ozil who has been named? You should know every single player.’
ALSO READ
- Eniola Badmus, Rotimi Salami, Sikiratu Sidodo, other celebrities add colour to 2026 Ojude Oba (PHOTOS)
- CBN extends PoS geo-fencing enforcement deadline to August 1
- Real Madrid retain top spot as world’s most valuable football club – Forbes
- PSG launch €120m plus two-player offer to hijack Julian Alvarez from Barcelona
- London to host 70th Ballon d’Or ceremony on October 26 in historic move from Paris
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang inherited the Arsenal captaincy from Granit Xhaka last December and Parlour fears Ozil’s decision being made public serves to highlight a critical lack of leadership in the current dressing room.
He added: ‘It shows the leadership issues again. In my era Tony Adams was captain, he would’ve gone around every single player and we would have all agreed together what we were going to do.
RECOMMENDED WATCH
Source: Metro UK
