Gossip: Ozil, Kondogbia, Havertz, Walcott

Daniel Storey

OZIL ONLY WANTS A MASSIVE CLUB
It looks increasingly likely that Mesut Ozil will leave Arsenal, the only question being whether he signs a pre-contract agreement in January or waits until next summer. He’s now hovering on the edges of the first team, and clearly doesn’t want to be there.

Writing for Goal, Chris Wheatley (their Arsenal correspondent) writes that Arsenal have still not offered Ozil a contract extension since they last discussed it with him in February. You have to wonder why they didn’t sell him in the summer if they weren’t going to even offer him a new deal to stay?

The interesting line is that Barcelona and Manchester United have both expressed an interest in Ozil, and that those two clubs are two of the three that Ozil would consider joining. Real Madrid is the third. How awfully good of him.

In fairness, it’s hardly a stretch to imagine Ozil leaving Arsenal and suddenly playing very bloody well indeed, particularly outside the Premier League. All the talent is there.

 

SPURS AND LIVERPOOL WANT KONDOGBIA
Well this is a new rumour, and by goodness do we like new rumours. According to the Daily Mail, Liverpool and Tottenham are set to ‘battle it out’ for Inter midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia. If Tottenham also buy Ross Barkley, they are going to have a lot of central midfielders.

Anyway, the Mail’s report actually comes from Tuttomercatoweb, which means you can probably take it with a few pinches of salt. The Mail have men on Merseyside and in north London who have not mentioned Kondogbia, so that’s not a good start.

The biggest problem is surely that Kondogbia is on loan at Valencia this season, and that they have an option to sign him on a permanent deal for £22m. Not going to be much of a battle if they choose to exercise that option.

 

OR LIVERPOOL WANT HAVERTZ
One potential Liverpool signing that might be worth taking a little more seriously is discussed by the Liverpool Echo. Andy Kelly writes that the club have been scouting Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Kai Havertz, including his four-goal haul against Belarus Under-19 on Wednesday.

Havertz became Leverkusen’s youngest ever player when he made his debut in October 2016, and is still just 18. He gained notoriety when he missed the second leg of the Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid in order to take school exams.

Still, we should say what we always say here: Clubs scouting players is really not massive news. They have huge scouting networks all over the world. It would be more weird if they weren’t watching one of the most exciting young players in European football.

 

AND THE REST
Former Chelsea star Oscar admits he would like a Premier League return one day… Manchester United have closed seven development centres in a streamlining of their academy… Southampton are ready to end Theo Walcott’s Arsenal misery… Cristiano Ronaldo has been left enraged by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.