Arsene Wenger has described Mesut Ozil as a "genius" who will thrive at Fenerbahce as the 32-year-old nears a move to the Turkish Super Lig club.
The Gunners have agreed to terminate Ozil's contract six months early, a move that will end a divisive spell at the club which began when Wenger brought him to north London in September 2013.
The former German international has been left out of Mikel Arteta squad this season, despite being the club's top earner on around £350,000-a-week, and hasn't played for Arsenal since March 7, 2020.
And while he has experienced an up and down seven years at the club, he did still score 44 goals and provide 77 assists in 254 appearances, with the majority of his best form coming under Wenger.
Wenger told beIN SPORTS, via ESPN: "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.
"Mesut is like if you imagine an orchestra in music. He's a guy who plays the ball at the right time.
"The timing of his pass is exceptional, but the creativity of his pass is as well. In every situation he confronts, he gives the right answer and that is genius."
Despite playing little to no football for nearly a year, Wenger believes he will get up to speed soon enough.
Ozil arrived in Istanbul for a medical in the early hours of Monday morning with technical director Emre Belozoglu detailing how the transfer should take around 72 hours to complete.
Fener play Sivasspor on Thursday but then have a home league match against Kayserispor the following Monday.
"There are two things that are very important in the quality of your performance," Wenger added.
"First of all your basic fitness, you can get your basic fitness if you work well in training and if you practice well.
"Personally, at the moment I don't know what kind of shape he's in.
"The second part is competitive fitness and that is linked with the number of games you play. On that front, he has a handicap.
"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.
"He certainly will be the biggest transfer of the January window because the world of football is a bit quiet."
