Opinion: Ozil and Sokratis decisions show that Arteta does keep his word | OneFootball

At the start of this month, while speaking about Arsenal’s plans for the transfer window, Mikel Arteta said as quoted by Mirror Football:

“Well, we have a large squad. We knew that.

“A lot of things that should have happened in the summer we could not accomplish them for different reasons.

“There are a lot of players that are going to go on loan. They are going to leave.

“And that’s the priority at the moment because we cannot sustain the numbers that we have in certain positions We are looking to do that.”

This week, the club has terminated the contract of Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and they are closing in on getting rid of Mesut Ozil, who has been redundant at the club for almost a year.

Throughout his time as the manager of Arsenal, Arteta has shown that he isn’t afraid to make the tough decisions even if it causes his team to suffer.

He axed Ozil and Sokratis from his team because they were not part of his plans. Despite pressure on him to bring the German back, he stuck by the decision.

He admitted that he probably made a mistake not naming William Saliba in his Europa League squad and fixed that by sending him out on loan this month.

These might be early days in his managerial career, but Arteta is showing great leadership, and it is something that will serve him well in the long-term.

Most of us have disagreed with him on some of his decisions, and when the results haven’t been ok, we have suggested changes for him.

But the Spaniard has stuck by most of his decisions, and he deserves credit for sticking to them and keeping his word.