Mesut Ozil hailed ‘genius’ and backed to thrive in Turkey as Arsenal ace ‘needs a warm environment’, says Arsene Wenger
MESUT OZIL is a ‘genius’ and will thrive in a ‘warm environment’, according to Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger.
Ozil, 32, is on the verge of completing a move to Fenerbahce having been snubbed by Mikel Arteta this season.
He is reportedly taking a massive £282,000-a-week pay CUT to seal a move.
And having not played at all this season after being left out of the Gunners‘ Premier League and Europa League squads, Wenger thinks he’ll be itching to get back.
The Frenchman told beIN SPORTS: “I’m sure that he’s frustrated at not having played.
“His hunger must be absolutely [enormous] to play football again.
“Mesut is a guy who needs a warm environment and I believe he will find that more than anywhere else in Turkey.
“Overall, he can provide the balls that the strikers need to win football games. If they do that well, they have a good chance of winning the league.
“I will follow that with great attention.”
Despite his lack of recent match action, Wenger doesn’t think it will be long before the German is back to his mercurial best.
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He added: “If his basic fitness in training is good, it will only take him three or four games to be at his best.
“The quality that he has is vision in depth. He sees quickly, he decides quickly and he realises quickly what he sees.
“That is a quality you don’t find too often in our game.”
Ozil penned a mega-money £350k-a-week contract in January 2018 while Wenger was still in charge at the Emirates.
And Wenger is thought to have had concerns about handing him such a deal.
Spanish outlet AS claim the playmaker is set to sign a three-and-a-half-year contract with a reduced salary of £3.5million-a-year at Fenerbahce.
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