Arsenal: First 3 items on the summer to-do list

Arsenal’s summer figures to be a hectic one, but going in with an itemized list could help things. Here are the first three things on said list.

There’s a lot to do this summer at Arsenal. Not even factoring in what happens with the rest of the season, whenever that happens, Mikel Arteta has to have his eyes on building this club in his image and not following in the footsteps of Unai Emery, who didn’t take enough drastic action to bring in his own guys and sell those that didn’t jive with his philosophy.

With the season on pause and transfer rumors flying every which way, the amount of work required to make Arteta’s first summer (or fall… or winter…) break successful may feel overwhelming, but a lot of the stuff being talked about is secondary.

There are only a few things that are primary concerns, and those are the things that should be first on the summer to-do list. Not just because they need to be sorted, but because it will drastically impact how the rest of the summer goes and how we handle those secondary concerns.

And so, with that in mind, here are the three things that need to be taken care of first and foremost. Unlike other lists, where we start at the back, this time we will start with the first item on the list, because it’s so important that it affects other items on the list as well.

1. Sell Mesut Ozil

I know, maybe I sound like a broken record. But I’ve been saying it for years now. The club cannot move forward so long as they retain Mesut Ozil. It’s not just the wages (though that’s a major factor), but it’s the complete lack of production.

In regards to the wages though, we need to offload those wages so that we can get to point No. 2 on this list, which I’ll get to in a second. In the meantime, it will also allow for Arteta to move forward with what will end up being point No. 3 on this list. So let’s get into those. No. 2 is next.