Arsenal legend Martin Keown claims the Mesut Ozil of today bears no resemblance to the one Arsene Wenger signed in 2013.
Ozil moved to the Emirates Stadium for a then club-record fee of £42.5million and flourished during his five seasons under Wenger's management.
But the German World Cup winner has played a minor role under Wenger's successors Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta and was recently left out of the latter's Europa League squad.
Ozil is also expected to miss out on a place in Arteta's Premier League squad and has even been told there is "no chance" he will play for Arsenal again.
Wenger spoke out against the "waste" of Ozil this week, but Keown insists he is a "different player now" to the one the Frenchman knew.
“I wouldn’t expect Wenger to speak against him,” the former Gunners defender talkSPORT . “Looking back at the Wenger years, he signed his new [£350,000-per-week] contract in that last six months of Arsene Wenger’s tenure.
“I don’t believe it’s the same Ozil now that he was managing at that point. Maybe the player has gone into a comfort zone a little bit, signing that new contract, because whether he likes it or not his statistics are nowhere near the player he was.
“It’s a different player now to the one that Arsene Wenger was managing.
“Wenger will have looked at the talents – he doesn’t look at what a player can’t do, he looks at what he can do. This man is a great visionary in terms of his passing, trying to get people in, his assists. He sees passes that people don’t even think of and that has just ebbed away.
Do you agree with Keown's verdict on Ozil? Have your say here.
“He hasn’t worked hard enough out of possession. Arteta coming in with a new culture – or going back to the old culture of wanting players to do both sides of the game, defend when you haven’t got it and then the artistry when you have – at the moment it’s not quite working.
“It’s not looking like there is going to be a way forward, he is going to be naming his 25 players shortly and it doesn’t look like he is going to be in that.”
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