LONDON - Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has offered to “reimburse the full salary” of the club’s mascot Gunnersaurus just 24 hours after the footballing dinosaur was revealed to be at risk of redundancy.
Tweeting on Tuesday, the German international said: “I was so sad that Jerry Quy aka our famous & loyal mascot @Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club was being made redundant after 27 years. 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.”
Jerry Quy has been an Arsenal fixture since the club instituted the mascot in 1993.
His part-time role was revealed to be at risk of redundancy earlier this week, as first reported by The Athletic.
The redundancy was separate to 55 planned job losses at the club, a move announced over the summer.
That job losses programme came under significant criticism as it came at the same time as the club were reported to be offering a contract worth more than £200,000 per week to Brazilian playmaker Willian.
Arsenal are yet to publicly confirm whether or not they will accept the offer from Ozil.
The club announced in August that they planned to make 55 roles redundant due to the financial ramifications of the Covid-19 outbreak, with Quy losing his job as a supporter liaison for away matches.
"Our aim has been to protect the jobs and base salaries of our people for as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we have now come to the point where we are proposing 55 redundancies," the club said in a statement released on August 5.
With games being played behind closed doors since Project Restart in mid-June, a small number of supporters were supposed to have been returning to Premier League games last weekend.
Arsenal had been planning to welcome a select number back for Sunday's 2-1 win over Sheffield United – but a change in Government guidelines means the return of supporters has been delayed indefinitely.
Gunnersaurus has therefore not been required at Arsenal home games, with Quy's former role on away trips also currently not needed.
Discussions on whether he continues to don the Gunnersaurus costume moving forward have not yet concluded.
But the Gunnersaurus gimmick will live on, even if a new employee takes on the role from Quy.
On Monday a GoFundMe page for was set up by Arsenal fan George Allen and has already raised more than £10,000 – a statement on the page read: "Gunnersaurus has been the Arsenal club mascot for 27 years. He's a club icon and we cannot let him become extinct."