Arsenal: If the call comes for Mesut Ozil, you have to answer

Rumors are kicking up against that Mesut Ozil could leave Arsenal for MLS. If this call comes, you have to answer and you have to pull the trigger.

Not going to lie, I fell for it. When Mesut Ozil had three resurgent matches under Mikel Arteta, I thoroughly believed that he could still mount a respectable finish with Arsenal before the summer months.

I no longer think that, after two matches of him properly ghosting. Even when I did believe it, though, I embraced a sale. You have to know when to cut your losses and Ozil has needed an escape route for years. Literally years, I won’t back down from that.

Rumors are flying around again that MLS clubs may be interested in bringing Mesut Ozil across the Atlantic, and the prospect is so delicious I can barely handle it. We aren’t going to get a whopping fee and that’s fine. We probably won’t get much at all, honestly. And again, that’s fine.

What needs to be accomplished in a move is some kind of financial bump as well as clearing wages and letting the club move forward without the super star weight of Ozil weighing us down.

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Sounds cruel, but football decisions can’t be made based on emotion. I still think that’s one thing Arsene Wenger wasn’t best at. He was too emotionally vested in all his players. It was endearing, and he made it work more times than not. But extending Ozil and handing that mammoth deal was a mistake. And I feel like it was emotionally triggered.

Mesut Ozil doesn’t have a place here. The No. 10 position, in the style that Ozil plays it, is not effective anymore. Our creators are appearing on the wings. Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, these are our creators.

If you want to have a creative midfielder, they have to do more than create. Like Kevin De Bruyne. Someone who has the effort to create for themselves.

I covered this in depth already, but the fact that Ozil has created zero big chances this year is astounding, and it reflects in his zero goals and one assist. That’s not deserving of the wages he gets. And that’s the only point that I need to make.

Mikel Arteta has shown a determination to keep hold of guys, but he may just be putting up the Arsene Wenger front. He has to see reason.