Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has notched his first (PR) goal of the season by offering to pay the wages of Jerry Quy, the man who plays the role of Gunnersaurus, the club's mascot.
With owner Stan Kroenke creating uproar among Gooners everywhere on the planet following the decision to sack the club's much-loved Gunnersuaurus, Ozil moved into action to stop the loveable green dinosaur from being dropped.
Before Ozil's intervention, Quy - the man behind Gunneraurus, who has worked for the Gunners for more than three decades - was set lose his job as part of Kroneke's cost-cutting regime at the Emirates.
“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,” said the 31-year-old German 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.”
Arsenal said they had to make staff redundant because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Gunners' first-team players and head coach Mikel Arteta agreed a 12.5 per cent pay cut in April. While the club's executive team also agreed to waive more than a third of their salaries over the next 12 months.
Reports suggested Ozil was one of the few players at the club who decided not to agree to the move.
While the German World Cup winner could comfortably afford the cut to his £350k wages, he had concerns over where the money was going, in light of Kroenke's overall family fortune pushing $15 billion dollars.
However, Ozil's move to fund Gunnersaurus suggests the German has no qualms over embarassing Kroenke, with his penny-pinching backfiring spectacularly.
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