Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith believes the club has to sell unwanted assets to sign players.

And he feels that Mesut Ozil should be the man to make way for new signings.

Ozil has not featured recently, despite being fit to play, as he is not in the plans of manager Unai Emery.

Smith believes a player on such high wages should be moved on to bring new talent to the squad.

Smith said on talkSPORT: "Ozil is on huge money and given Arsenal are at the limit for their wages, if you could get Mesut Ozil out the door it would free up a few quid to get somebody else in.

"They are in that situation at the moment.

"But it's not going to easy to get somebody on that kind of money out to another club, that's the problem Unai Emery faces.

"Does he now put an arm around Ozil and try to get the best of him?

"When we're winning without Ozil it's strong management and he's not curtailing to the highest earner, but when they're not doing so well, like against West Ham, it's why on earth isn't he using him.

"It's always going to be that situation when you've got a player like Mesut Ozil in the ranks."