Gunnersaurus: Mesut Ozil offers to fund Jerry Quy’s salary after Arsenal make mascot redundant

Mesut Ozil has offered to reimburse Arsenal with Jerry Quy’s full salary so that the former club employee, who acted as the official mascot Gunnersaurus, can return to work.

Quy had been an employee at Arsenal for 27 years before reports emerged that he had been made redundant yesterday, with Arsenal spending £45m to sign Atletico Madrid’s Thomas Partey just hours later.

“I was so sad that Jerry Quy aka our famous & loyal mascot @Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club was being made redundant after 27 years,” Ozil wrote on Twitter.

“As such, I’m offering to reimburse @Arsenal with the full salary of our big green guy as long as I will be an Arsenal player so Jerry can continue his job that he loves so much. #JusticeforGunnersaurus”

Arsenal announced in August that they planned to make 55 roles redundant due to the financial ramifications of the Covid-19 outbreak, with Quy losing his job as a supporter liaison for away matches.

"Our aim has been to protect the jobs and base salaries of our people for as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we have now come to the point where we are proposing 55 redundancies," the club said in a statement released on 5 August.

On Monday, a GoFundMe page for was set up by George Allen and has already raised almost £9,000.

A statement on the page read: "Gunnersaurus has been the Arsenal club mascot for 27 years. He's a club icon and we cannot let him become extinct."

Ozil has been ostracised by the club since Mikel Arteta’s arrival as manager, with the Gunners desperate to offload the playmaker’s £350,000-a-week wages. However, the 31-year-old has always insisted that he will see out the remaining year of his contract.