Manager Mikel Arteta has publicly defended the Arsenal club's decision to reduce staff by around 60 posts, with annual savings estimated at between five and seven million pounds. The move comes at a time when the club have renewed the manager's contract with an increase of £20m per season.
According to Arteta, the cuts will mainly affect the commercial, marketing and disability departments, but will not affect the first team staff. He explained that the analysis conducted at club level aimed to "evolve to improve", assigning each person the most suitable roles and continuing to invest to achieve the set objectives. “We need to make some decisions to put people in the right roles and continue to invest to achieve the goals we have set and achieve the success we want,” he said.
Arteta also stressed that he was not the best person to answer more detailed questions on the matter, asking the club to respect his position. The club then limited the possibility of delving further into the matter during the press conference.
The reduction in staff, while not having a direct impact on the team, reflects a broader restructuring strategy that aims to make the organization more efficient and future-oriented. With the renewal of Arteta's contract, Arsenal appear to be aiming to consolidate their internal structure as they continue to compete at a high level in both the Premier League and European competitions. The next step will be to observe how the new role assignments will affect the day-to-day operations of the club and whether the strategy will deliver the desired results.