Ray Parlour

Mesut Özil is fully focused on the upcoming Premier League season with Arsenal, despite being caught in the centre of a raging debate following his retirement from international football on Sunday night. That was the view of former Gunners midfielder Ray Parlour, who is currently in Singapore in his role as a club ambassador for the International Champions Cup (ICC). Özil cited “racism and disrespect” shown towards him by the German Football Association (DFB) as the main reason behind his retirement in a lengthy, no-holds-barred statement released on his various social media pages. This led to widespread concerns that the…