Real Sociedad left-back Nacho Monreal spoke with FourFourTwo about his former Arsenal teammate Mesut Ozil who was suspended from his club Fenerbahce last week.
Monreal and Ozil spent multiple seasons at the Emirates, dazzling fans and providing hope for a Gunners team who was trying to regain their spot as England’s best team.
Both players played key roles and even won a few domestic titles together, but the current Real Sociedad defender has come out to say that playing with Ozil was not as smooth as everyone thought.
The former German international is a controversial figure in football, falling out with the Germany national team after the 2018 World Cup for a number of reasons, then with Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, who was just recently appointed as Arsenal manager at the time.
His latest fallout is with Fenerbahce, where he was alleged to have gone on strikes due to unpaid allowances which both himself and the club have denied. Ozil, however, has been suspended by the club due to a widely publicised fallout with the manager Ismail Kartal.
Monreal, speaking to FourFourTwo on the issue, said that Ozil was a person who had problems with everybody.
“Ozil’s problem is that he had problems with everyone,” Monreal told FourFourTwo. “It ended badly with Wenger, he didn’t play the last few games with him, then 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.”
Monreal talks Emery, last days at Arsenal
Monreal joined Real Sociedad in 2019 after six years at Arsenal between 2013 and 2019, where he played 251 games for the club.
Until he left, the 36-year-old was the Gunners’ chief left-back.
The former Spain international left at the beginning of Mikel Arteta’s tenure as Arsenal manager, but was there for the tail end of Arsene Wenger’s career and Unai Emery’s one-and-a-half seasons as Arsenal manager.
Monreal was asked about Emery’s failed stint at the club which saw him lose the final of the UEFA Europa League after taking over from Wenger in 2018.
“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.”
Cavani linked with Real Sociedad
Elsewhere, Monreal could be having a new striker to work with at the Reale Arena in the summer as Manchester United’s Edinson Cavani is being linked with a move to the Basque club.
La Real are preparing for the possibility of losing main striker Alexander Isak in the summer, following all of Europe’s interest in the young Swedish striker.
They are also on the verge of losing promising Real Sociedad B striker, Jon Karrikaburu, who the club considers ready for a jump to the senior team next season following Barcelona’s interest in the player.
The Basque side have now turned their focus to Cavani, who, after playing in Italy, France and now England, is hoping to play in Spain.
The 35-year-old striker has not enjoyed his time at Manchester United and was linked with a move to Barcelona in the January transfer window, before the Catalan club chose to go with Monreal’s ex-Arsenal teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang instead.
Now, a number of media outlets have reported that Cavani could finally get his LaLiga move as Real Sociedad have expressed a genuine interest in his services.
La Real could be in need of two forwards as loanee striker Alex Sorloth will be returning to his parent club as well. It remains to be seen what becomes of this news.
