Arsenal Transfer News: Grading Mesut Ozil Move from Real Madrid

What are Arsenal supporters going to complain about now?

On transfer deadline day, Sky Sports News reported that Mesut Ozil is moving to Arsenal.

Arsenal confirmed the move on their official website.

BBC reported the fee to be £42.5 million.

According to Raphael Honigstein, Arsenal were not afraid to match the player's wage demands.

For Gooners, it must feel like Christmas in September. Summer after summer, they've seen their best stars leave the club only to have Arsenal fail to invest that money back into adequate replacements.

Well, not only has Arsene Wenger been able to hold on to his best players, he's added one of the best young midfielders in the world in Ozil. That's all Wenger needs to do to make this one of Arsenal's best transfer windows in recent memory.

The 24-year-old German is a tremendous playmaker in midfield. In 206 matches across the Bundesliga and La Liga, Ozil has recorded 26 goals and a whopping 93 assists.

According to WhoScored.com, his 2.9 key passes per game were tied for the best in Spain last season. His 84.1 percent pass success rate was also very high for a midfielder with as much creative licence as he has.

Signing Ozil allows Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey to sit in their central midfield positions rather than having to push forward out of necessity. Ramsey in particular has been on great form already.

With a creative option like Ozil further up the pitch, the 22-year-old Welshman can focus his efforts on being a long-term replacement for Mikel Arteta. Wilshere will also get some of the creative burden taken off his shoulders, which is good considering how he seems to have stalled a bit in his development.

Olivier Giroud should also benefit from having Ozil on the pitch.

Giroud has looked great in the preseason and through Arsenal's first three EPL matches. With Ozil providing fantastic service up top, the Frenchman should thrive and is a legitimate threat to score 20 goals.

Oliver Kay of The Times thinks Philippe Coutinho's immediate success at Liverpool should bode well for Ozil.

There's also the less tangible benefits of this move. You can see the goals that Ozil scores and sets up, but you can't really see what this move does for supporters and the kind of repercussions it could have on Arsenal down the line.

This is a player just beginning to enter his prime leaving arguably the biggest club in the world to come to Arsenal. That's a major indication that Ozil is confident in where the Gunners are going.

And if he's willing to make the move, why wouldn't other stars? Ozil could be just the first of many over the next few years to move to Arsenal.

There's also a stigma surrounding the club that it refuses to spend money. That notion has been thrown out the window.

It's one thing for Ivan Gazidis to say the money is available. It's something different to actually have the club spend said money.

No longer will Gooners doubt whether or not Wenger will spend big money. When Arsenal are linked with a big-name target going forward, it won't be a fairy tale to envision him playing at the Emirates.

In his book, Soccernomics, Simon Kuper writes that the massive price tag of the World Cup can sometimes be worth it because of the positivity it brings to the host country. It's instantaneous good feelings you cannot get too many other ways.

The Ozil deal has brought this kind of reaction to Arsenal. It's a lot of money to spend, but you're getting a fantastic midfielder and giving the supporters what they want.

Piers Morgan compared the perceptions of both Arsenal and Manchester United at the moment.

The one knock on this deal is that Ozil doesn't really address some of the club's larger issues. Arsenal have spent a lot of money on a player, but they still could use a striker, defensive midfielder and a goalkeeper to push Wojciech Szczesny.

In fact, if you were to look at what Arsenal need the least, a central attacking midfielder would have to be near the top of the list.

It's easy to overlook those negatives when acquiring a player of Ozil's quality. The fact that Real Madrid even made him available is shocking. He makes any club demonstrably better.

Whether or not Ozil is enough to break Arsenal's trophy drought remains to be seen.

Final Grade: A