‘Ozil of 2020 isn’t the player that Wenger signed’ – Arsenal outcast not ‘anxious’ to play, says Keown

Mesut Ozil is no longer the player that Arsene Wenger signed, says Martin Keown, with the Arsenal outcast appearing to have lost his creative spark and appetite for the game.

The Gunners made the German playmaker their record signing when snapping him up from Real Madrid in 2013.

A return of sorts has been offered on that investment, but little value is being found at present in a World Cup winner tied to a lucrative contract.

Mikel Arteta has taken to dropping a man he once played alongside from his future plans, with Ozil expected to miss out on a place in Arsenal’s Premier League squad having already been overlooked in the club’s Europa League selection.

A stunning fall from grace has left many baffled, including iconic former Gunners boss Wenger, and Keown believes there is now no way back for the mercurial 32-year-old

“I wouldn’t expect Wenger to speak against him,” former Arsenal defender Keown told talkSPORT.

“Looking back at the Wenger years, he signed his new contract in that last six months of Arsene Wenger’s tenure.

“I don’t believe it’s the same Ozil now that he was managing at that point.

“Maybe the player has gone into a comfort zone a little bit, signing that new contract, because whether he likes it or not his statistics are nowhere near the player he was.

“It’s a different player now to the one that Arsene Wenger was managing.

“Wenger will have looked at the talents – he doesn’t look at what a player can’t do, he looks at what he can do. This man is a great visionary in terms of his passing, trying to get people in, his assists. He sees passes that people don’t even think of and that has just ebbed away.

“He hasn’t worked hard enough out of possession. Arteta coming in with a new culture – or going back to the old culture of wanting players to do both sides of the game, defend when you haven’t got it and then the artistry when you have – at the moment it’s not quite working.

“It’s not looking like there is going to be a way forward, he is going to be naming his 25 players shortly and it doesn’t look like he is going to be in that.”

Keown added on a man who is due to be out of contract in 2021 but may spend several months stuck on the sidelines before dropping into the free agent pool: “You can’t get it back, you are a long time finished. Those years just float away and you have got to be on the pitch and enjoying yourself.

“That’s the bit I can’t quite understand, that he doesn’t seem anxious to get back out and play.

“It’s going to come to a head at the end of the season, it can’t go on forever, and maybe that’s the natural end and the best way forward.

“At the moment he doesn’t get in the team and I assume he doesn’t fit into what Arteta needs on the pitch.”