Charles Watts, the Arsenal correspondent for Goal, has been discussing Mesut Ozil’s offer to pay the salary of Jerry Quy – the man underneath the Gunnersaurus costume – after he was let go by the club after 27 years.
Despite his many years of service, the club decided earlier in the week that the mascot was no longer needed given the absence of supporters at present. Following that news, the German took to social media and offered to ‘reimburse’ the club with his salary for as long as he remains an Arsenal player.
Although Ozil’s offer, by some, has been viewed as a nice gesture, Watts believes the 31-year-old may have had another motive when publicising his offer. Here is what he had to say during a recent YouTube video:
“We all saw what he did with the offer with Gunnersaurus. I know it’s a lovely gesture, but it is not going to go down well with Arsenal. They’ve made their decision in terms of redundancies, Mesut and his people knew what he was doing with that social media post – yes, it’s a nice gesture, but it was clearly designed as a bit of a dig at Arsenal. It’s just unfortunate it is all ending like this.”
Do you think Mesut Ozil saw this as an opportunity to embarrass the club?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
Mesut Ozil has been left out of the club’s UEFA Europa League squad and it’s clear from what the journalist had to say that he feels Ozil’s offer was a calculated dig at the club.
The former Real Madrid star is yet to feature for Mikel Arteta’s side this season and therefore it may be understandable as to why he has been left out of the 25-man squad. With Arsenal due to name their Premier League squad on October 20, and given the fact they have too many non-homegrown players at present, we wouldn’t be surprised if he is not registered to play in that competition, either.