Arsenal: Mikel Arteta doesn’t need to do Mesut Ozil any favors

As always, Mesut Ozil has proven a point of contention for the new Arsenal manager, but Mikel Arteta doesn’t need to give Ozil any handouts.

Dear Mesut Ozil fanboys. I was overjoyed by Unai Emery’s handling of the Ozil vs Arsenal situation. Many saw this as “freezing” Ozil out, but that wasn’t the case at all. Emery just benched an ineffective player. He gave the German so many chances to work his way back in, but he continued to underwhelm.

In his dying days, Emery just gave in and let Ozil fail on the pitch along with the team as a whole and Freddie Ljungberg had been following that same path until the Everton match, his last.

Now, everyone is just dying to know how Mikel Arteta will deal with the situation. Of course, the media was already asking, and Arteta was optimistic about Ozil, and didn’t shy away from the possibility of using him in his plans.

I don’t fault Arteta for his statements. He doesn’t want to come out and say, “Ozil who? I don’t know any Ozil.” That would welcome all kinds of unnecessary drama.

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But that doesn’t mean that Arteta has to believe all of the words he said.

In fact, I’d be more confident in his managerial skills if he didn’t. Because there is no future for Ozil at this club. If you can’t see that by now, there are issues. It’s not all Ozil’s fault. This is just a bad match. Ozil would have to drastically alter who he is as a player and the club can’t expect him to do that anymore.

Rumors have kicked up again linking Ozil to MLS, and suffice to say this sounds like an excellent plan to me. Anywhere else sounds like an excellent plan to me.

Which is why I don’t want Arteta to come in here trying to build a future for Ozil when we all already know that there is none. Don’t do him any favors, don’t pull out the stops to try to find a place for him. He’s going to be leaving soon, which is the best solution to the problem. No point in drawing out the issue.

In case you didn’t get the memo, the No. 10 position is dead, and that’s all Ozil was capable of playing. I hope that Arteta knows that and is willing to help the club move forward without the dead weight that has kept the previous three managers down.