Arsène Wenger believes the decision to offer Mesut Özil a long-term contract last year may have left the German in a “comfort zone”.
Özil ended speculation about his future last year by committing himself to Arsenal until the summer of 2021, with Wenger still at the helm. But the playmaker has fallen out of favour under Wenger’s successor, Unai Emery, having started only one game since Boxing Day to bring renewed scrutiny as to whether he will remain at the Emirates Stadium.
Wenger, speaking after being honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Laureus World Sports Awards, said: “I feel that the length of the contract has nothing to do normally with the selection of the team. But sometimes there are special cases. Most of the time now we think when we sign a player for five years we have a good player for five years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they practise, they play their best. Because they might be in their comfort zone.
“He has a contract but the problem is that, if you want to buy a player like him, you have to spend £100m. And to maintain the value of the player, beyond the Özil case, it is more about the way football is structured.
“To buy players of top, top quality you need £100m. So the decision you have to make is whether you re-sign the player, who costs us nothing, or do we have the money to buy a new player?”
Simone Biles’ four gold medals at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships saw her overcome Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Ester Ledecka, Mikaela Shiffrin and Daniela Ryf to be named sportswoman of the year at the awards show.
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Novak Djokovic collected his fourth sportsman of the year honour in recognition of returning to No 1 in the tennis rankings. Djokovic pipped Lewis Hamilton, LeBron James, Kylian Mbappé, Luka Modric and Eliud Kipchoge to the prize.
Naomi Osaka won the breakthrough award following her maiden grand slam victory at the US Open, Tiger Woods claimed the comeback prize after winning his first PGA Tour title in five years, while France’s football World Cup winners saw them scoop the team accolade.