Arsenal family making Ozil 'feel at home' after quitting Germany duty, says Unai Emery

Unai Emery has promised Mesut Ozil will feel at home and part of the family at Arsenal after he decided to retire from international football.

Ozil quit playing for Germany on Sunday after explaining he had suffered racism and disrespect due to his Turkish roots.

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The 29-year-old was criticised back in May after being pictured with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an event in London.

In the wake of that, the attacking midfielder has explained he received hate mail and was blamed for Germany's poor performance at the World Cup.

“I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose,” Ozil said in a statement posted on social media.

“It is with a heavy heart and after much consideration that because of recent events, I will no longer be playing for Germany at international level while I have this feeling of racism and disrespect.”

Ozil has since returned to training with Arsenal and is part of the squad currently touring in Singapore.

And his new head coach, Emery, has promised the attacking midfielder that he will feel welcome back at his club.

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“All of us want to help Mesut feel like it is his home here with us, like a family and it is a family for every player,” said Emery.

“He feels here with us that he can work every day, and it is good for us that he decided to come here and work with us before our two matches.

“I am very happy with him, every player is looking together and Mesut has the respect of every player here. It is a personal decision from Mesut and I respect it.

“He thinks what is best for him, he explained his decision and here we need to help him.”

Emery says he has not spoken to Ozil yet about his decision to quit international football.

The Spaniard is, however, confident the 29-year-old has the necessary experience and mentality to continue performing at club level and have a strong season for Arsenal.

“[We have] not yet [spoken], because he arrived on Sunday to travel and I prefer to give him the normality in the team and for him to feel good with us,” said Emery.

“He has experience, he has quality and he has a great mentality and we are going to help him feel good and to show his quality with us.

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“I am sure he is going to have a big season with us.”

Ozil’s decision to retire sparked criticism in Germany from Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, who claimed the attacking midfielder had been underperforming for years.

“I am glad that this scare is now over. He has been playing s*** for years," Hoeness told Sport Bild.

“He last won a tackle before the 2014 World Cup. And now he and his s***y performance hide beyond this picture.

“Whenever [Bayern] played against Arsenal, we played over him because we knew that was their weak point.

“His 35 million follower [on social media] - that don't exist in the real world - are convinced he has played sublimely when he completes a cross pass.”

Emery was pressed this morning in Singapore on what his reaction was to those comments, but he refused to be drawn into a war of words on the matter.

“I respect everybody and their opinions, but we are professionals and we need to understand everyone but work for us and to be together,” he said.

“We know the football [world] around us is about opinion and critique, we have a mentality and quality to work away from this opinion.”