Ozil offers to pay salary of sacked Arsenal Mascot

 

Embattled Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil has offered to pay the salary of Jerry Quy, the man who plays the role of the famed club mascot, Gunnersaurus.

On Monday it was revealed that Quy, who has been part of the matchday experience at Arsenal for 27 years, was one of 55 redundancies at the club.

Arsenal announced they had to make staff redundant because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

First-team players and head coach Mikel Arteta agreed a 12.5% pay cut in April. The club’s executive team also agreed to waive more than a third of their salaries over the next 12 months.

And following announcement that Quy’s service will no longer be needed at the club, Ozil, who has yet to feature this season, offered to take up the responsibility of paying his salary as long as he remain an Arsenal player.

“I was so sad that Jerry Quy, aka our famous and loyal mascot Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club, was being made redundant after 27 years,” the 31-year-old German said in a post 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.”

Ozil has been with the Gunners since 2013, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.

He is on a whopping £350,000 a week deal, and the club has tried to shop him off as he is no longer a part of coach Arteta’s plans.’

But the German World Cup winner refused to leave the club, saying he intends to honour his contract which ends in the summer of 2021.