Mesut Ozil is a player who is supposed to bring his team together. He is the playmaker, the creator capable of knitting midfield with attack and bringing the best out of those around him.
Rather than unite Arsenal, the mismatch between the idea of what Ozil brings to the squad and the reality of his situation is tearing the club apart.
Make no mistake. Ozil and Arsenal are parting ways, slowly, and without any hope of a clean break. It has already become a mess.
Arsenal have left him in no doubt that they want to sell him. Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, the regime that greenlit his albatross of a contract in January 2018 are gone.
The new Arsenal, headed by Raul Sanllehi, has strategic priorities beyond a 31-year-old who is now an awkward fit both for their current head coach's plans and their preferred 4-3-3 formation.
Of course, Ozil is not going without a fight.
Much of last season was pockmarked by not so cryptic tweets from the player's social media account. It is a habit that has continued into the current campaign.
"You make me laugh," was the caption that accompanied a picture posted on the eve of the Europa League clash with Vitoria at the Emirates. It was posted for a reason.
Whether it be quoting Dennis Bergkamp or noting how hard he had been working in training over a week prior to a game he was never going to be selected to play a role in, every move is as calculated as the flourishes in his passing when he is playing and in top form.
His absence from the squad to face Vitoria came with a Robert Pires selfie. From a public relations perspective it is immaculate - the perfect way of showing Arsenal fans that he is one of them by aligning himself with a beloved members of the Invincibles team.
Taken in isolation, many of these posts could be explained away as misunderstandings or examples of unfortunate timing.
However, these messages were not posted by accident nor without clear knowledge of how they would be perceived. Ozil is a remarkably intelligent individual on and off the pitch, well advised by an exceptionally capable group of support staff.
On January 18, amid a run of seven Premier League games where he featured only once, he tweeted about a "full week of team training done" at a time when Arsenal were searching for another club prepared to take him off their hands.
The post sent a clear message to the fans while his employers were seeking a suitor to take him off their hands.
Earlier this season, in an interview with The Athletic, Ozil publicly stated that he would be honouring his contract until 2021. He was believed to be well aware of Arsenal's stance as a club when that statement was published.
It is this playing of the public and their misgivings over Unai Emery and Arsenal that may be some of his most impressive work between the lines yet.
Even when Ozil is not playing his presence is felt. "We've got Ozil" echoed around the ground on Thursday as Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles were chosen ahead of him against a disciplined, well-structured Vitoria side.
Ozil, or at least the hazy memory of an Ozil that once was, has come to stand in opposition to the clunking, conservative football Emery is serving up.
The Spaniard is not immune from criticism over his handling of Ozil - the man whose name he seemed unable to utter during two separate questions about the playmaker during his press conference ahead of the Vitoria win - but he has the backing of his superiors.
If Emery left there would not be any significant change to Ozil’s standing.
"Here, we have one agreed strategy as a club and as a team," Emery said after Raul Sanllehi publicly backed his stance earlier this month.
"Because the most important thing is the club, the team and finding a performance. Previously we were all speaking between us to take that decision.
"When we can speak about him something differently we will look."
It should be noted that this agreed strategy also involves an admirable commitment to youth players. Even if Ozil is the superior No.10 now Smith Rowe, Willock and Dani Ceballos are all on a different trajectory to the World Cup winner.
His most vociferous backers on social media might like to believe this is not the case but there are few 31 year olds whose best footballing years are ahead of them.
Ozil is not working to arrest his decline.
Those around the training ground are clear that there are others in the squad training harder for their chances than the No.10. Ozil and his supporters might be inclined to quote the NBA's 2001 MVP, Allen Iverson: "We're talking about practice."
Perhaps the criticism you would level at Emery is that if he really wants to prove that Arsenal no longer need to Ozil he needs to give the former Germany international enough gametime to prove his point - show that the real Ozil falls some way short of the mythological figure that critics demand should be in the team on talent alone.
This season has offered only two games where Ozil has actually been seen for the player he is now.
He may have been as impressive as Emery's system allowed him to be in the draw against Watford but he did not look significantly better than the player who averaged a direct goal involvement every 269 minutes last term.
In 2018/19 it was only home games against Leicester and Bournemouth that Ozil could truly be said to have bent matches to his will.
Go back to the signing of his new deal and his Premier League return is five goals and four assists in 30 games. Henrikh Mkhitaryan had a better return with fewer games played last season.
Needless to say there was no war on social media and in the stands over the Armenian being allowed to join Roma.
Ozil could yet be a great player again but it is hard to see how that can be at Arsenal.
Club and player are on divergent paths, the former determined to give chances to youngsters whilst the latter searches for his Indian summer.
Major League Soccer represents perhaps the ideal option and there is mutual interest between Ozil's representatives and DC United.
With time and distance this combustible present will fade from memory. Arsenal will be able to celebrate the numerous outstanding moments Ozil has delivered, fully justifying the remarkable investment Wenger made in him in 2013.
For whatever reason - there is certainly a deep-seated attachment between the player and the club - Ozil will not give in but as supporters split to take against him or take his side, the risk of ever greater discord only rises.
Sadly, this is how the Ozil era at Arsenal will end, not through the cruel misfortune of an injury robbing all parties a satisfying goodbye, nor an Indian summer where he redefines himself to better fit a game that has moved away from his own, but in a dispiriting war of words between fans that is dividing the club.
