Mesut Ozil joins Fenerbahce and the soap opera is finally over for Arsenal

The midfielder's silky touches were replaced by pointed social media posts and his legacy at the Gunners is now a tainted one

German midfielder Mesut Ozil posing with a Fenerbahce scarf upon his arrival at Ataturk International Airport in Turkey on Monday, January 18. AFP

Mesut Ozil posing with a Fenerbahce scarf. AFP

Mesut Ozil on a private jet arriving at Ataturk International Airport. AFP

Mesut Ozil on arrival at Ataturk International Airport. AFP

Mesut Ozil arrives at Ataturk International Airport. AFP

Mesut Ozil arrives at Ataturk International Airport. AFP

Mesut Ozil, accompanied by his wife and daughter in a private jet. Reuters

Mesut Ozil after arriving in Istanbul. PA

Mesut Ozil, accompanied by his wife arrives at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Reuters

Mesut Ozil after arriving at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. AP

Mesut Ozil arrives at Ataturk International Airport. Reuters

The paradox of Mesut Ozil was that it finished as it began, all about the numbers. A playmaker is a purists’ footballer, the sort of slight technician who prefers passing to shooting, whose goal tally only forms part of the picture.

His time at Arsenal may be remembered for the delicacy of passes, his appreciation of space and angles, his wispy elusiveness. But facts and figures stand out.

When he flew to Turkey to tie up his move to Fenerbahce, on a flight tracked by 260,000 people, it was 316 days after what proved his last Arsenal game; his final three years were on £350,000 a week and Arsenal failed to finish in the top four in that time.

He leaves a club on course for their lowest finish since 1995. Yet he was bought to restore them to the summit. His £42.4 million fee raised Arsenal’s transfer record by £25 million. It signalled the end of their age of austerity, Arsene Wenger’s reward for his skill at balancing the books.

Wenger himself had to be persuaded to pay that much. Arguably Arsenal needed a striker more than a creator, but Ozil suited the ethos.

He joined a club that already had a surfeit of potential No. 10s – Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky, arguably even Aaron Ramsey – but Wenger accumulated likeminded talents. “Mesut is like a musician who always plays the right note and at the right moment,” Wenger said in 2015. He was the virtuoso in the orchestra.

Fast forward to the current day. Arsenal play with different instruments. Mikel Arteta, the team-mate who went on to exile Ozil as manager, has spent much of the season operating without a No 10.

Arsenal have missed the German’s creativity even as they have moved on. Perhaps football has: the No 10 can appear an anachronism, a luxury player an endangered species during a move to higher-paced football where everyone has defensive duties.

Even Bruno Fernandes, the outlier of a No 10, delivers goals at a rate Ozil never could.

And his output became an issue. He leaves Arsenal behind only the greats Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry plus the prodigy Cesc Fabregas for Premier League assists; his 2015-16 total of 19 left him only one short of Henry’s record for a season.

He helped win three FA Cups, though he was on holiday in Turkey when Arteta's team won a fourth in August.

And he departs with just six league goals and four assists since the summer of 2018; only two starts away at big-six teams in that time.

Some of the complaints about Ozil’s body language were overblown but there were legitimate questions if he tracked back enough; he felt a cause of Arsenal’s poor away record at their supposed peers, then he was not trusted to be an answer to it.

And they had three years to regret the contract given in January 2018, panic presented as a coup. It was a reaction to Alexis Sanchez leaving but Olivier Giroud departed in the same window.

Yet they, along with Ramsey, had benefited most from Ozil’s service. He struck up no such relationships with their successors. Silky touches were replaced by pointed social media posts, especially when he was omitted. The biggest contract in Arsenal’s history ranks as their worst, even if Willian’s current deal may rival that.

And while Ozil lent artistry that belonged in Wenger’s truest traditions, his legacy is a sadly negative one. For Arsenal, the Ozil years were a time of decline. It is unfair to just blame him for that but it feels a shame that he goes amid a sense of relief simply that the soap opera is all over.