is not photoshopped. Arsène has this to say about the German midfielder:
We are extremely pleased to have signed Mesut Ozil. He is a great player, with proven quality at both club and international level. We have watched and admired him for some time as he has all the attributes I look for in an Arsenal player.
The deal is said to be for £42.5m for five years and weekly wages of £150,000, along with bonuses. It’s ironic that our first key signing of the transfer-window addresses one of our lower-level needs, but the addition of Özil should make a dramatic difference in our prospects. How many times have we fallen behind to an inferior opponent—heck, even to one of the three teams to finish ahead of us—and seen them park the bus for the rest of the match? I’m not saying that Özil will, by himself, magically solve that problem for us, but he’ll make it dramatically easier to overcome those deficits while also making such deficits much rarer in the first place.
Talk about your dramatic turnarounds. Only a few hours ago, we are lamenting our inaction and lambasting our manager for ineptitude, tight-fistedness, and worse. With one fell-swoop, he’s answered his nay-sayers. Even if this is the only signing of the season (and there’s still about an hour before the window closes as of this post), we’re looking like legitimate contenders. While it’s true that Spurs have been active, they’ll have a hard time replacing Scott Parker and that other guy who left. The clubs that finished above us have been made a few moves of their own, of course, so it’s not as if we can just show up against those three and simply take all three points, but consider how close we were to doing so last year. A flubbed clearance at Old Trafford against Man U. A bizarre take-down in the box against City. An own-goal of sorts against Chelsea. We’ve come up just short against these squads, close enough to taste a point if not all three, and Özil’s addition could be enough to make a difference in reclaiming a few points here and there while also keeping all three against the other 16 teams in the Prem. All of a sudden, that 16-point gap between us and Man U seems much less daunting, not to mention the five points that separated us from Man City and the two that separated us from Chelsea.
Arsène, I apologize for doubting you. This signing may not be enough by itself to see us finish atop the Prem this year, but it’s enough to show that you do have a trick or two up your sleeve. To have out-maneuvered PSG and Man City to obtain Özil’s signature takes a sleight of hand I had doubted you possessed. For that, I ‘m sorry, and, of course, merci.
