Overpaid and underplayed: what Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez tell us about football’s market problem

Mesut Ozil

It never promised to be the happiest of reunions, even before one of the participants was ruled out. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez could have compared pay cheques and their impressions of the Premier League’s various dugouts.

Yet if the Chilean seemed likelier to play when Arsenal host Manchester United on Sunday, it was only due to injuries. Then he was sidelined himself. Half of his goals this season have come at the Emirates Stadium, but he won't take to the field he graced in his days as the most coveted footballer in England.

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Richard Jolly

Richard Jolly also writes for the National, the Guardian, the Observer, the Straits Times, the Independent, Sporting Life, Football 365 and the Blizzard. He has written for the FourFourTwo website since 2018 and for the magazine in the 1990s and the 2020s, but not in between. He has covered 1500+ games and remembers a disturbing number of the 0-0 draws.