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Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil says he will stay with the club “through to the last day” of his contract in June 2021.

The former Germany international, 31, has not played since the Premier League resumed in June, with manager Mikel Arteta citing “pure football reasons”.

But Ozil dismissed reports the club were looking to pay up the last year of his £350,000-a-week deal.

“Things have been difficult but I love Arsenal,” he told the Athletic. “I’ll decide when I go, not other people.”

“I’ll give everything I have for this club,” Ozil added. “Situations like these will never break me, they only make me stronger. I showed in the past that I can come back into the team and I will show it again.”

Ozil, who joined Arsenal in a £42.4m move from Real Madrid in 2013, fell out of favour under previous manager Unai Emery before returning to the side under interim boss Freddie Ljungberg.

After Arteta’s appointment in December, Ozil started all 10 of Arsenal’s Premier League games immediately before the coronavirus pandemic forced a three-month suspension of the Premier League in March, but has not featured in their past 13 matches in all competitions.

Despite Arteta and his first-team players accepting a 12.5% pay cut in April, Arsenal announced they plan to make 55 staff redundant because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ozil opted against a pay cut because the players were “rushed” and believes “possibly the decision affected my chances on the pitch”.

While he respects Arteta’s decision to leave him out, Ozil believes he should have been given a chance to show what he can do on the pitch, saying: “You don’t play 10 games in a row if you’re unfit, not good enough or don’t behave well.”

He added that he was “not the only player who rejected the cut in the end, but only my name came out”.

Former Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen is having a medical at Benfica on Thursday before signing a three-year deal.

Vertonghen, 33, left Spurs at the end of the season after eight years with the Premier League club.

The Belgium international made over 300 appearances for Tottenham.

Benfica finished second in the Portuguese top flight last season and will enter the Champions League at the third qualifying round stage.

Vertonghen did not win a major honour in England. He was part of the Spurs teams that lost the League Cup final to Chelsea in 2015 and the Champions League final to Liverpool in 2019.

FC Dallas defender Reggie Cannon has condemned the “disgusting” booing of players kneeling during the national anthem by some home fans before their match against Nashville on Wednesday.

Almost 3,000 fans were inside the Toyota Stadium, with supporters permitted at some Major League Soccer (MLS) games if local rules allow.

Some boos could be heard as players from both teams took a knee in protest against racial injustice.

“How disgraceful is that?” said Cannon.

“You got fans booing you for people taking a stand for what they believe in. Millions of other people support this cause and we discussed with every other team and the league what we’re going to do and we’ve got fans booing us in our own stadium.

“I think it was absolutely disgusting.”

The match, which Nashville won 1-0, was the first major league sporting event with fans since the MLS was suspended in March because of the global coronavirus pandemic.

During that time, protests have swept across the United States and worldwide following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who died on 25 May after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter, while three other officers were also sacked and charged with aiding and abetting murder.

“I’m sorry for our fans because we had someone chanting ‘USA’ when they don’t understand what kneeling means,” added 22-year-old USA international Cannon.

“They don’t understand why we’re kneeling – they can’t see the reason, they just think we’re the ignorant ones and it’s incredibly frustrating.

“When we decided to kneel I knew it was going to happen. That should tell you something. I knew we were going to have some negative pushback from having a unified response over what’s going on.

“That’s a problem.”

Cannon said Dallas’ intention to kneel had been communicated to both Nashville and the league before the match.

He had asked for the US national anthem not to be played but the MLS has previously said it will be when fans are in attendance.

A person was reportedly escorted out of the stadium after throwing a water bottle at players as they were kneeling.

“It hurts me because I love our fans. I love this club and I want to see the support that the league has given us – that everyone has given us – from our fans,” said Cannon.

“As soon as I heard that boo I tried to play on and I knew what to expect. We’ll take it one day at a time and again we’re unified in this response and everyone stands together.”

Watford are to appoint Vladimir Ivic as their new manager on a two year contract.

The 43-year old Serbian left his role as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv at the end of the season after winning consecutive league titles.

According to reports, Ivic was to hold talks with Watford’s owners in Udine, Italy last month and he impressed them sufficiently to be handed the job. Ivic had previously managed PAOK where he won the Greek Cup in 2017.

He succeeds Nigel Pearson who was controversially sacked before the end of last season which saw Watford relegated to the Championship.

Former Leicester City coach Claude Puel, currently at St Etienne, had been the early favourite to succeed Pearson prior to Watford’s relegation while Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber had also been considered.

Ivic did not command compensation and was on a relatively modest contract in Israel

Brazilian superstar Neymar insisted that Paris Saint-Germain always believed they could come back from the brink to defeat Atalanta with two goals in the dying moments of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.

“I never thought of going home. From start to finish, from the warm-up, we only thought of qualifying for the semi-finals,” the world’s most expensive footballer toldl news men

Substitute Eric Choupo-Moting’s goal three minutes into added time allowed PSG to beat the Italian outsiders 2-1.

Mario Pasalic gave Atalanta a 27th-minute lead but PSG were rescued when Marquinhos came forward to scramble in a last-minute equaliser.

Kylian Mbappe set up fellow substitute Choupo-Moting to win the tie right at the end.

The French champions will play RB Leipzig or Atletico Madrid next Tuesday for a place in the final.

“Nobody is going to take my mind off that I want to go to the final,” added 28-year-old Neymar as PSG made the last-four for the first time since 1995.

“We really have a great group, we’re a family, we know that with this state of mind it’s impossible. to put us out of competition.

“We knew that a ball could arrive, that even after the equaliser we could score a second goal.”

Neymar hailed Atalanta, the team which captured the imagination of neutrals, reaching this stage despite their city of Bergamo being one of the worst hit by the coronavirus.

“Atalanta are a great team, they played very well, they are the surprise of the competition. They were very aggressive, we knew they were going to press us,” said Neymar.

“Now we’re going to have to rest, it was a tough game mentally.

Kylian Mbappe could return for Paris St-Germain in Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final against Atalanta.

The France forward, 21, has recovered from an ankle injury and boss Thomas Tuchel says he will feature in Lisbon if “nothing extraordinary happens”.

However, Tuchel did then suggest Mbappe was most likey to be used off the bench against the Italian side.

“We are really pleased to have the possibility of finishing the match with Kylian on the pitch,” said Tuchel.

“That gives Neymar someone who likes playing alongside him.”

World Cup winner Mbappe sprained his ankle during PSG’s French Cup final win over Saint-Etienne on 24 July, but he has recovered in time for the ‘final eight’ stage of the Champions League.

The French champions have not reached the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition since the Qatari takeover of the club in 2011.