Almost every football club has been badly hit by the unforeseen lockdown over the past couple of months but most of the big clubs have managed to hold things together. Despite Arsenal, that is.
The Gunners in a rather shocking decision have chosen to make 55 of their staff redundant so that the club can free up money in order to bring in new transfers and thereby become a powerhouse in Europe once again.
The official statement read: “Our aim has been to protect the jobs and base salaries of our people for as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we have now come to the point where we are proposing 55 redundancies.
“We do not make these proposals lightly and have looked at every aspect of the club and our expenditure before reaching this point. We are now entering the required 30-day consultation period on these proposals.
“We know this is upsetting and difficult for our dedicated staff and our focus is on managing this as sensitively as possible.
“These proposed changes are ultimately about ensuring we take this great football club forward, creating the right organisation for a post-Covid world, and ensuring we have the resources to return to competing effectively at the top of the game here and in Europe.”
Sacking people who are on basic wages to buy players worth millions and millions of pounds has surely not gone down too well with the footballing community and Ally McCoist was one of the first persons to come out and speak against this decision.
“I don’t think you can defend it. I think the majority of Arsenal fans would agree with that,” the former Rangers striker told talkSPORT.
“It’s indefensible to think that [a] scout, somebody who has been at the club 30 to 35 years [is being let go]. Morally, I think it’s an own goal. I understand the dilemma, particularly Arteta, he’ll want to strengthen his squad.
“He wants to bring Willian in and you’ve got to keep Aubameyang.
“But you tell me how that can be morally right if you’re offering somebody £100,000 a week when somebody on £200 is getting the sack.”
And if this was not enough then talkSPORT are claiming that even the Arsenal players are also not too happy with this decision from the Arsenal hierarchy, especially after they themselves have decided to take a pay cut a couple of months ago.
The report quotes The Athletic saying: “Arsenal players plan to speak to club hierarchy after their decision to make 55 staff redundant.
“When Gunners players took a 12.5 per cent in April amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was on the understanding that all jobs would be preserved.
“The Athletic reports that the squad have been extremely disappointed with the latest developments, which equates to around 10 per cent of the club’s permanent staff being let go.”
It’s understandable that Arsenal are going to work on a very limited budget in the transfer market this summer but we just do not understand how removing basic permanent employees will help the Gunners bring in players like Philippe Coutinho and Willian.
