‘We could have fired Sanchez, Ozil’

LONDON. — Lee Dixon insists Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil would have been “shown the door” if they had played in the Arsenal teams of his era. Both players’ deals expire in the summer, meaning they could leave Arsenal for free at the end of the season. Sanchez’s Arsenal future has long been in doubt and the Chile international was part of a surprise attempt at a swap deal with Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in the final week of the summer transfer window.

The 28-year-old’s attitude and body language has also been the focus of much scrutiny and the forward reportedly made no secret of his desire to leave the north London club. Ozil is also regularly linked with a move away from Arsenal, despite the Germany international midfielder recently telling fans to “ignore the noise” regarding the rumours. Dixon, though, says that his former Arsenal team-mates would not have been very patient with the stars. We’d have just shown them the door,” said Dixon. “If you don’t want to play, then go. That’s not changed.

“If a player doesn’t want to play for you: it happened with Michael Thomas 18 months after he scored [the title-winning goal against Liverpool] in ’89, he was in dispute with the club or George about money. He ended up going in similar circumstances and signing with Liverpool. Dixon, who played at Arsenal for 14 years under Arsene Wenger and George Graham, believes that the situation is more complicated now by external factors such as powerful agents.

He said: “Agents and players manipulate situations – and clubs do, in order to get the best deal for the parties concerned – but in general, if you don’t want to go there, and you don’t want to stay, then you will be ousted from the environment and dressing room pretty quickly. — Sky Sports