It was imminent, and they’ve done it: Sport claim Mesut Özil to Barcelona is close, so much so, in fact, that they use an exclamation mark in their article headline.
“ÖZIL ALARM!” sits very nicely at the top of the report, and what follows, if true, suggests a real desire from the German to join the La Liga leaders in January.
According to the Catalan outlet, who are always going to make everything Barcelona do far more exciting than it actually is, the dossier is being handled by Raúl Sanllehí, who has a ‘very good relationship’ with Arsenal from previous transfers.
Barcelona’s director of football is said to have met with the agent of the Gunners’ attacking midfielder, as well as his brother, in order to talk about the outline of the contract the Özil would eventually sign.
With that part of business ‘practically done’, suggesting they’ve agreed to whatever Barcelona have offered, the matter was then passed on to the footballing side of the club, which is where the club’s general manager Pep Segura, technical secretary Robert Fernandez and manager Ernesto Valverde come in.
Sport explain that no one at the Catalan side doubts Özil’s qualities, but a few members of the staff believe the deal ‘ill-judged’.
Barcelona would have to pay somewhere around €20m for a player whose contract expires in June, while there are doubts over how he would adapt to the Barcelona dressing room.
Furthermore, his ‘lack of involvement’ on the pitch, as well as his alleged social life off it are two other concerns for the technical staff.
With this in mind, Pep Segura is yet to give the green light to Raúl Sanllehí to negotiate with Arsenal, and will mull over the idea for a few more days before taking a definitive decision on the matter.
Our guess is: expect a ‘Barcelona tried, but it wasn’t right for them’ article by the end of the week.
