Former Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal says that Mesut Ozil had "problems with everyone" at the club, adding that his lack of fitness also contributed to his eventual exit.
Ozil played for Arsenal from 2013-21, eventually falling out of favour under Mikel Arteta before making the move to Fenerbahce.
The German midfielder was recently frozen out of first-team plans after being taken off at half-time in his most recent outing against Konyaspor, with Ozil ultimately left out of Fenerbahce's latest first-team squad.
What was said?
“Ozil’s problem is that he had problems with everyone," Monreal told FourFourTwo. “It ended badly with [Arsene] Wenger, he didn’t play the last few games with him, then [Unai] Emery tried to bring him back and make him our leader.
“To begin with, he gave him a lot of confidence and Mesut played a lot, but the coach understood there were other teammates who were in better condition. Ozil was one of the best players in the team, one of the best paid, but they saw he wasn’t at the level required.
“As a person, he was good with everyone, but he also missed a lot of games through injury.”
Emery 'weighed down'
Monreal also opened up on Emery's tenure at Arsenal, which saw the Spanish boss replace the legendary Wenger.
Emery was in charge of the club from 2018-19, and had a publicly fractured relationship with Ozil, as he was sacked in November 2019 after 78 games in charge.
“Emery was weighed down by the post-Wenger period, as would have happened to anyone,” Monreal said. “I think Unai had a great season. We didn’t get into the Champions League because we messed up down the stretch. But he took us to the Europa League final against Chelsea.
“The first half was good, but in the second half we were deflated. The team was getting back on track, but everything went wrong afterwards.”