Arsenal could PAY OFF Ozil's £18m contract or subsidise his astronomical wages

Arsenal are looking to reach a financial agreement with midfielder Mesut Ozil to get him to leave the club, according to reports.

The German playmaker, who was Arsenal's record signing in 2014, has been frozen out by head coach Mikel Arteta and has not played a single minute of football since the Premier League returned from its coronavirus hiatus.

Ozil's £350,000-a-week contract makes him the highest-paid player at the club and has one year left on his current Gunners deal, with his agent revealing that the player is going nowhere this summer.

But according to The Mirror, the Gunners could pay off the final few months of Ozil's contract or even subsidise his astronomical wages if he finds a new club.

The 31-year-old's bumper salary means that very few teams can afford to sign the player, with the global pandemic putting a lot of strain of several teams' finances - including Arsenal's.

The club announced in the first week of August that 55 non-playing staff members will be made redundant in the first month, including several senior members of their player recruitment team.

The north Londoners will look to offload some of their stars this summer, with the same report claiming that Matteo Guendouzi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac could all be shipped out alongside Ozil.

Arsenal are also looking to bring in new reinforcements, with Chelsea winger Willian, defender Gabriel Magalhaes and Atletico Madrid's Thomas Partey all reportedly on Arteta's wishlist.

The Gunners are also looking to extend the contract of club captain and top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose willingness to commit to a reported £250,000-a-week contract may prove pivotal for Arsenal's hopes next term.

Ozil joined the Gunners for a then-record £42.5million in the summer of 2013 and immediately changed the fortunes of the club.

The German fired north Londoners to three FA Cup triumphs in his first four seasons in north London, while the 2015-16 Premier League campaign saw Arsenal finish in second place, with Ozil registering 19 top-flight assists in that campaign.

However, Ozil started to mysteriously miss more and more matches for Arsenal towards the end of Arsene Wenger's reign and was frozen out by the Frenchman's predecessor Unai Emery at the beginning of the 2019-20 season.

The German returned briefly before Emery's sacking and during the first few matches of the Arteta reign but has not been called upon by the Spaniard since the first week of March.

Without Ozil, the Gunners managed to lift their 14th FA Cup by beating London rivals Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley.