George Graham insists he’s extremely impressed with the job Mikel Arteta is doing at Arsenal, but he must finally offload outcast Mesut Ozil. The Spanish boss guided the Gunners to FA Cup glory. However, the new campaign has been a mixed bag for the north London side. Those results mean Arteta’s side go into the international break in 11th place in the table. Former Arsenal manager Graham – who guided the club to two league titles, two League Cups, an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners’ Cup – admitted he has been satisfied with Arteta’s work so far. "I’m very pleased with what he’s done recently," Graham told talkSPORT. 'He’s already won cups and he’s only been there two minutes. I like the way he’s trying to play out a bit more. I was very strong defensively and it worked for me. We won a lot of games by the odd goal. I like the way they’re playing under Arteta. He brought in a very strong midfield player [Thomas Partey] and a defender [Gabriel] from Brazil. It looks to me that he’s spending their money – which is not a lot – very well." One of Arteta’s main challenges has been dealing with Ozil, who hasn’t played a game for the club since March. Graham slammed the club’s handling of his contract situation, insisting Arteta must move him on. "It’s very difficult," Graham added. "The first thing you say is, ‘who is the person who sorted the contract?' Did the rest of the board see that contract and agree to it? That was a bad decision. "We’ve got to try and get rid of him and pay half his wages if he goes to another club, but even then it’s too expensive. He’s got to be in a team that’s dominating games and he’s got to be on the ball as much as possible. "Without the ball… just no. He is definitely lacking, not even at the top level. Without the ball he’s not good enough. With the ball he can be good enough, but he has to be in a good team. He was up and down like a yo-yo under Arsene Wenger. He obviously isn’t playing into the new manager’s style. You play when you’ve got the ball but you also play when you haven’t got possession. He’s just not up to the standard that Arteta wants."
Source: Metro/*Join us on Telegram!