Mesut 'Over The Hill' Ozil To Irons Joke!

Dear Old Carlton Cole, he of the famous 'smokin' head' post match interview, seems to have been smoking something else if his collaboration with Talk Sport is to be believed. The Hammers stalwart is quoted as saying why Ozil would be a good acquisition "West Ham have always liked those kind of players, those magician-like players. Arsenal would have benefited from having him in their squad, but he clearly doesn’t fit in at the moment.”

Bless him, Carlton obviously seems to think that the club needs another highly paid Arsenal cast off, having finally 'offed' Jack Wilshere at enormous cost, a player who somewhat bizarrely claimed to have been fit 'more often than not' during his two and a half tenure with the Irons. Like Wilshere, Ozil claims to have been fit and available to play but found himself not even included in the match day squads selected by his manager.

Some would say the reason for neither of them being selected is simple, contrary to their claims, both picked up repeated injuries that meant their managers could not rely on their long term availability and consequently elected to work with players who weren't injury prone, is it just a co-incidence that both have been highly paid for NOT playing?

The problem for any manager that inherits an expensively assembled squad on big wages, is that they have little 'wiggle room', either they play the 'expensive ones' just because of how much they cost, or select the players they think will do the job for them irrespective of their transfer cost or value.

David Moyes has shown that he is his own man in this respect, and accordingly 'luxury items' like Felipe Anderson have been despatched freeing them from the wage bill, quite why Arsenal didn't do the same with Ozil is baffling, but one thing that is for sure is that there is not a snow ball in hell's chance of Ozil turning up at the London Stadium, unless Arsenal are prepared to pay every penny of his wages and even then who would he replace?

David Sullivan has only just got out of intensive care from having to pay off 85% of Jack Wilshere's remaining outrageously generous £100,000 per week wages, his occupation of the medical facilities possibly being the reason for the over run of Said Benrahma's medical!

No, Mezut Ozil is the sort of signing 'dear old West Ham United' would have 'snapped up' in years gone by, but finally the club is moving in the right way on the pitch, and for that trajectory to continue, the last thing that is required is a 'past it has been' on massive wages! - Ed