Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have hit out at Mesut Ozil for allegedly refusing to take a pay cut at Arsenal.
The Gunners announced on Monday that the majority of their squad have agreed to a 12.5% salary reduction for a 12-month period to help them cope with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the club's highest-earning player Ozil is believed to be one of three players to have resisted a drop on his £350,000-a-week wages.
Ozil has been criticised for his actions, with Manchester United legend Neville and Liverpool icon Carragher among those to lay into the German midfielder.
"I always felt this would be a problem," Carragher told Sky Sports News. "There's two strands of players who might not fully engage, and that's a young lad who maybe didn't have the revenue, or a player coming to the end of his contract.
"But the fact the highest-paid player hasn't done it... the rest of the squad has agreed it, you've got to go with the rest of the players. As you say, it's a massive PR own goal.
"I'm not going to have a go at him for the wages he's earned, blame the people who are paying him, but the highest-paid member of the squad should be one who sets the example."
Neville added: "The principle of not being together as a group is indefensible. You're a team on and off the pitch.
"I wouldn't like to be one of the three who hasn't agreed. It will alienate and isolate them from the rest. When a group of players are voting on something, you go along with it.
"It just demonstrates the complexities of what is going on at Premier League clubs right now. Football is eating itself from the inside out.
"Most clubs, players, are not at war but they're in a massive battle. The players don't trust the clubs and this is just another example of it."
Despite being repeatedly linked with a move away from Arsenal, Ozil's agent Erkut Sogut recently insisted that the player is "very happy" in North London.
Daniel Lewis
