As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
1989 wrote:Özil was never pushed out of Madrid. He was an integral player for them. Bale coming in made him want to go, because he deemed his place to be under threat. While di Maria, who's place was also under threat as a result of Bale's arrival, relished the battle hence Madrid offloaded the player who didn't want to stay anymore.
I think it was a simple case that Madrid needed to recoup some of the Bale money and Ozil was the one we were after and commanded a much bigger fee then Di Maria who is a different type of player but nowhere near as good.
Received wisdom has it that Ronaldo personally asked for di Maria to not be sold, but was then surprised that Özil was.
