Mesut Ozil has come under scrutiny for turning down a proposed 12.5% cut from his salary to financially help Arsenal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The club players and coaching staff on Monday agreed to a 12.5% salary cut for one-year period.
But the German midfielder, who is Arsenal’s highest earner, wants to wait and analyse the “full financial impacts” of the virus before coming up with a decision, as per The Mirror.
This decision of his hasn’t gone well with fans and several football players.
Former Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports: “There are two strands of players who might not fully engage, and that’s a young lad who maybe didn’t have the revenue, or a player coming to the end of his contract. But the fact the highest-paid player hasn’t done it… the rest of the squad has agreed on it, you’ve got to go with the rest of the players. As you say, it’s a massive PR own goal.”
While former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville called Ozil’s action indefensible: “The principle of not being together as a group is indefensible. You’re a team on and off the pitch.”
“It just demonstrates the complexities of what is going on at Premier League clubs right now. Football is eating itself from the inside out. Most clubs, players, are not at war but they’re in a massive battle. The players don’t trust the clubs and this is just another example of it.”
Television host Piers Morgan hit out at Ozil on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday: “Shame on you Mesut Ozil, shame on you. The players I felt were getting a bad rap. This is why some of them deserve a bad rap. People like Mesut Ozil, who’ve just said no.”