Mesut Ozil not playing for Arsenal is a ‘waste and they have to find a way to get him involved again’, urges Arsene Wenger

Arsenal must find a way to involve outcast Mesut Ozil in the first team or it’s a ‘waste’ of his ‘creative talent’, believes their former manager Arsene Wenger.

Wenger signed Ozil for a then club record fee of £42.4million in September 2013 to great fanfare but the playmaker has been a source of division among Wenger’s successors since.

Ozil played all Premier League matches under Mikel Arteta before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic but the 31-year-old did not play a single minute for the Gunners once the restarted in June.

Despite that trend carrying over into this season, the 2014 World Cup winner with Germany has vowed to stay at the club until the end of his contract in 2021. He has also been omitted from Arsenal’s Europa League squad for the group stage this season.

And Arsenal’s legendary manager Wenger, who won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups during his near 22-year reign at the club, believes something must be done to reintegrate Ozil into the first-team.

‘I feel it is a waste for him,’ the 70-year-old Frenchman told BBC Sport.

‘Firstly because he’s in the years where a player of his talent can produce the most. And it’s a waste for the club as well because he’s a super talent, a creative talent that in the final third can create that killer pass.

‘The way football is going at the moment it’s quick counter-pressing, quick transitions and everybody plays the same. It’s kicked out players like Ozil. Although let’s not forget who this guy is. A world champion who has played at Real Madrid.

‘He’s been the record player of assists, so you have to find a way to get him involved again.’