Redundancies sharpen concerns over certain expenses.

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Arsenal announced that they’ve gone into consultation with staff over 55 redundancies at the club due to the covid nightmare that’s gripping businesses around the world. I can’t imagine the decision was easy and I feel dreadful for the people going through the process. This moment in time has been awful for many reasons, but the damage it has done to the jobs market is especially difficult to deal with because the people it affects haven’t done anything wrong. Covid induced redundancies, particularly in entertainment, seem unavoidable. Remember, this is a club that was fretting over electric bills last year.

Without meaning to tack this onto an agenda – this is why the club needs to be responsible with how they dish out the ‘it’s just the way it is’ fees to the hangers-on around player entourages. A successful football team is obviously essential to a successful business, which is why I hope the club is taking the same cost-cutting eye to agents as it is to the loyal servants that are having their lives rocked at the moment.

Speaking of deals, Willian looks close.

I have accepted the reality here and I won’t argue this all summer, but before I depart on the subject, I want to clarify two things.

  1. I like the player, he would add something to the squad.
  2. I do not like the concept of a Shadow Technical Director/Directors

I will move on from that because I don’t want to put a grey cloud on the window, it’ll be what it’ll be, and we’ll just have to hope the powers that be are working their magic behind the scenes to ensure the club is being run professionally.

Mark Irwin reckons the deal is going to be worth £130k a week. If that is all in, I can deal with that sort of number. We’re not paying him a premium, though we are giving him what in all likelihood will be a dead year for choosing us over a more lucrative deal in Miami or Barcelona. The player is top quality, fit, and a professional. We have done worse over the last few years.

Part two of our ‘hold your nose’ window could very well be Coutinho, as reported post-cup final. The club clearly sees this as their marquee opportunity, the new, errr, Ozil. Barcelona is desperate to clear the wage bill and save some face. Arsenal is in need of creative players that can move the ball at speed. I have no idea what sort of plan Mikel would have for the Brazilian, but I’d imagine he’d try and reshape his game to maximise his explosive power and unlock the maximum creativity of our forwards.

I don’t know what the deal would look like here. Some are talking of a loan, some are saying it’ll be a swap with Matteo, some are saying we’ll pay a fractional fee much in the way Inter are for Alexis.

We’re in a ‘the jury is out’ moment here. On the one hand, it is impossible to deny that he’s not far better than anything we have in our starting 11. He’s moving into the peak of his powers, having just turned 28 years old. He’s played in the Premier League, under Jurgen Klopp. He had 91 goal contributions in 200 appearances. In his final full season there, he racked up 25 goal contributions in 36 appearances. Things haven’t been great at Barcelona, but let’s be honest, not many of their transfers have worked out as planned. Along with Griezmann and Dembele, it’s been a rough run for the Catalans.

Would I prefer us to be looking at players like Dejan Kulusevski and Saïd Benrahma? Sure. Do I understand why Arteta wants to bring in players with more experience? Yes. Should I be grateful that a player of his quality wants to come to a team that is in its 3rd year of Europa League football? Probably.

I think I’ve been hoisted by my own hype-train a little a bit on the player thing. I’ve spent 3 years saying that Arteta is a world-class coach that can extract more from players, now he’s picking up players like Coutinho and Willian, I can’t really moan, I have to trust the process. If the coach is in, it’d be rude of me not to go along with it… UNLESS IT FAILS THEN I WILL DOUBLE DOWN.

Business-wise, going for older players on big money with no longterm value doesn’t make sense. Especially if you’ve tried it for 3 years and consistently regressed. Dortmund invest in young players, they make the Champions League every year, and by the end of this summer they’ll have received £600m in transfer fees over 5 years (Arsenal, £200m). They’ll start next season with Haaland and Jude Bellingham, two of the most exciting young players in the world. We are told that Arsenal can’t afford to invest in top young talent, yet we’re out here finding £22m for Willian who is 32 in a few weeks. Sorry, I said I wouldn’t do that. But I find it frightening that we might be moving on Cagigao and handing over the scouting reigns to someone that gets his info from his mates.

Question, do you still think the Raul power grab is an agenda thing from me? Doesn’t look good if there aren’t replacements.

Again, this summer could shift up a gear, there are still young players we could be sniping in the background. I like the sound of Gabriel Magalhães from Lille, the right age profile we should be looking at as we look to move on from Luiz and Mustafi this season. I’m hoping that some of the swap deals we’re looking at involved players of a younger profile. I’d also like to think our youth scouts, if there are any left, are working hard to bring in top talent.

So let’s see where we go. I’ll judge the body of work when it’s finished and hope that maybe this summer is one that Raul and Edu feel under pressure to deliver on. Josh and Stan can’t continue to watch the club leak money if progress isn’t being made at every level, Edu’s job is squad shaping, he has to come with the goods this summer, so let’s see if he can be a little more creative than working with his own agent.

Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.

 

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Hoksilato

Incredulous that many seem surprised our billionaire owners lack empathy and would not inject their cash to save jobs…. believe me FSG at Liverpool are the same kind of bastards but they are way smarter and that’s a much bigger issue for us. Kroenke is very very mediocre.

Dream10

Arsenal players not happy with 55 staff being made redundant. They agreed 12.5% wage cut in April after receiving assurance nobody would lose jobs. Yesterday’s news left squad angry & they plan to raise it with #AFC bosses – David Ornstein

Habesha Gooner

I would be upset too if Someone told me to take a pay cut to save jobs but in the end fired them either way.

This is just a stupid decision at the wrong time. We were United and were expecting a good summer but they fucked it up at the wrong time. Auba also may rethink his stance now. Saving 2 mil wasn’t better than keeping the club unified.

Terraloon

Dream

It’s worth reading the comments that go with that article.

Arsenal Beira year getting absolute pelters

As an aside here’s Willians comments re his insistence about a 3 year deal

Chelsea only offered me two years and I asked for three,” he recently said. “My goal in the next contract is to sign for three years, so I haven’t had a deal with Chelsea yet.

“This is what I asked the club for, three years of contract.”

Dream10

Wonder how players will feel about Arteta after this. He is the one that did the bidding for the Kroenkes.

Dream10

Terraloon

Haven’t read it yet. Just saw Ornsteins tweet

Terraloon

Damm word check

Ashwin Gunner

i dont understand , how in gods name can you defend sacking of 55 folks. if money was the problem, then the top executives who earn millions should forgo their salary (or atleast part of it) to keep the ship floating. Pandemic is worst than we thought, but why is that only people in the lower strata have to take the hit and the ones who are already rich wont let go of a penny. Irony died, when you sack the scouting department to spend money on super agents… There is a clear conflict of interest here. I am not… Read more »

Terraloon

Dream

Makes my thoughts and comments on here look positive!

Hoksilato

When players accepted the 12,5% reduction ,the executives accepted a 30% reduction in salary if I read correct

Tee

“Sanchez has cancelled his contract with Manure. Arsenal can do something similar to Ozil although I don’t trust this incompetent board.”

The major actor there is Sanchez not man u. If Sanchez refused to cancelled his contract then there’s nothing man u can do about it.

So, it isn’t about the board but the player. The hunger for success and play time in Sanchez shows Ozil to be a lazy fuckwit.

Gooner Gtant

While it’s not nice to be made redundant, Arsenal Football Club is 1st and foremost a business. Any business that wants to be successful, can not be run on sentiment. On the grand scheme of things 55 redundancies. Although horrible for those 55, in a business the size of Arsenal are small figures. At the end of the day I’m pretty sure 90% of fans, wouldn’t be very happy. If the club sold Abua and made no signins, but said hey we stopped 55 people losing there job.

Graham62

Terraloon

If I wasn’t disillusioned about things before, I certainly am now.

Graham62

Tee

Exactly.

Graham62

If professional football, at the top level, is to survive, the governing bodies have to implement far stricter rules in respect to these “super agents”.

The problem is, the governing bodies remain corrupt institutions and are basically only in it for themselves.

It’s farcical.

Pierre

Maybe Ozil had a point when he questioned the pay cuts.

Mind you , he has paid for his stance by losing his place in the side .

Dream10

Pierre

Agreed. Wonder who are the other two players who declined to take a pay cut?
In April, ESPN mentioned three players.

Danny S

Pierre

You are the only person that could spin Ozil a moral high ground in all this. Haha

Dark Hei

Dream 10

Matt G would be my guess

Valentin

Marc, You seems to have disappeared. It looks like the point that I was making is being proven at Arsenal. Employees willing to make financial sacrifice, expect management to tell them the full truth and be bound by their words. Technical legal obfuscations and omissions are unlikely to be met with approval. I think that Raul and Vinay have tried to pull a fast one on the players and it is starting to backfire. They either knew that the redundancies were going to happen and which case they lied or at least mislead them. Or they genuinely did not anticipate… Read more »

Terraloon

Tee

Whilst Sanchez agreed to cancel his contract it came at a cost to Man U.

I believe that the numbers work well for him.

For instance the fact that he is moving to Italy on permanent contract of two years means 50% of his income is tax exempt.

I personally don’t think that this is Sanchez making some sort of financial sacrifice but it starts from Utd probably sweetening the post to the tune of several million

Sid

After this pay cut debacle Arteta is
1. Badly amatuer
2. In bed with the tyrants
3. Both 1&2

Dream10

Valentin

Really interested to see how the players will feel about Arteta. He did the bidding for Kroenkes in the dressing room to drive thru the pay cuts

Valentin

Pierre, I was making the point to Marc yesterday that usually in Germany and in France, it is common practice for management to extract financial concessions from employees in exchange for a proper plan for the next few years. That plan can have contingencies, but those are clearly detailed: stadium can’t open all of next season, can open but only bring a quarter of revenue, half of revenue, etc. For each of the contingent elements description of the financial mitigating steps to be taken. X redundancies, pay cut, etc. Before people cry a river for the poor management team who… Read more »

CG

Outstanding post(s) Terraloon,

Both Cagaillio and Sven were in the frame for the Technical Directors position and both cynically have been removed from the club.

Summary,

So this new ‘progressive’ Arsenal ( post Wenger) basically means real footballing experts like Sven and Cagaillio leave and sleazeballs Kia and Raul arrive.

Nelson

Listening to all Arteta’s interview, he never closed the door completely to Ozil. My guess is that this corrupted board is trying a last kick in the can and hopes that Ozil leaves this Summer. They will give up after this TW. Arteta will then have a free hand to use Ozil whenever he sees fit.

Uwot?

Arsenal staffing was apparently over the 1000 mark.They appear to be re- organising like 99% of companies are unfortunately having to do.Prior to the pandemic it was on the cards a reduction in these levels was coming in a shake up.Sadly people have lost jobs.No different to other companies. What’s compounded the issue is requesting the players to also take cuts when they themselves( the players) did this in order to help the club maintain staffing levels.Not a good PR move.

Uwot?

Arteta is NOT responsible for the administration of the day to day running of the club.Those decisions ( unlike wenger) who ran everything really Is out of his control.

Valentin

Dream10,

Like I wrote at the time, don’t volunteer to wash somebody else laundry, because soon you end up everybody’s maid. And if something get wrong with the clothes, you’ll be blamed even if you were doing somebody a favour.

It was a rookie mistake based on the fact he genuinely believed Vinay and Raul to be honourable competent men who knew what they were doing and would not lie/misled to him and the players.

Dissenter

Whatever you think of Alexis Sanchez, he’s showing more honor than Mesut Ozil.
He wasn’t afraid to go go out on loan and had accepted a negotiated ending of his contract with United. Reports are that this may save United as high as £40 million.
It takes a lot of guts to walk away from that type of money when you’re a 31 years old footballer.
I don’t think Ozil is that kind of guy.

Dissenter

How much did we really make by winning the FA cup, the FA. Up cash prize is a paltry sum just about the same money we committed to getting Soares on a 6 month loan.
Qualifying for Europe also meant the previously agreed wage reduction was reversed.
It was obvious that some staff would have to be let go but the scouts should have been spared. Scouting is the blood of a football club. Firing some many scouts including Cigagio is a Freudian slip that shows where the priorities of the club are.

Karsa

Maybe the fact that scouts aren’t allowed in grounds at the present time to scout might have something to do with it.

Bojangles

As I stated previously, Martinez will not accept no 2 again

https://www.justarsenal.com/martinez-warns-arsenal-that-he-wont-settle-for-the-bench/253749

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