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.
- I like the player, he would add something to the squad.
- 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.
1st
Champions.
Second!!!
Tro4ee?????
Trofee?????
A miracle!!!!!!!
Too late today.
After what seems like a decade I have done it at last. 🙂
Apparently the Coutinho deal is at an advanced stage.
Let’s hope it’s true, and the deal goes through. I do like him.
Terrific little player.
Kulusevski is going to juventus
Breaking news
Willian deal is 2 years + 1
Leave it to Le grovers to divert the redundancies to Ozil ( who was(is?) reportedly ready to take a larger pay cut granted the club details his team how the financials are affected) , while the billionaire owner increases his net worth by hundreds of millions in a depressed financial environment.
When does the window end this year??
When does the window close this year??
Remember, this is a club that was fretting over electric bills last year.
Not literally of course?
Congratulations NJ Gooner!
I’m just as interested…actually probably more interested…in who we get rid of this summer instead of who we buy.
Pedro-Any news on that bit that you can provide? Outside of Matteo and Özil….
Willian and Coutinho will certainly add quality. I have no doubt that Willian will provide consistency. But will Coutinho? At 28, he does have time for some resale value if he delivers. But it sounds like the sort of bet that clubs take when they are desperate.
And I don’t know how the club can justify this morally when they are firing 55 people.
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.
Aren’t we like super low on fees paid to agents?
Groovy season starts September 12th window ends October 3rd or 13th I think
Thanks Mark S! Very gracious.
I am a solid lurker but don’t comment much because I don’t like the tone that some people news. I love this blog, however, and am very grateful to Pedro.
The window is open until early October.
Reports saying Willian is 2+1. Wonder what the anti-Edu/Raul/Kia bandits find to attack this deal now.
We don’t know what roles the redundancies are in – it could be roles tied to match day attendances in which case with whats being talked about over here I can’t see a stadium with a full crowd for some time.
Very difficult to take a view until we know exactly who’s being let go.
Extremely sad to see 55 people losing their jobs when frauds like Ozil continue to mint 350k weekly.
Looks like Willian is a done deal.
Any idea how much is Coutinho going to cost ? I read Geundouzi +9 m , but that sounds too good to be true.
And I don’t know how the club can justify this morally when they are firing 55 people.
It’s begun already. Look signings shouldn’t be thought of in regards to the redundancies. Whether we fired 55 or hired 55 we still need to invest in the squad. Year in and year out
“Breaking newsWillian deal is 2 years + 1”
If that’s true and the salary is what Pedro mentioned it’s nto a bad deal if he’s a player that Arteta wants.
The big question is how will the triple A’s find a way (ie make shit up) to still make it a bad idea?
Captain Tierney
Well said regarding Özil. It’s the specialty of the fan base. Kroenke is worth 8 billion
Francis Cagigao SACKED
Welcome to super agent FC
Also Willian is reportedly a two year deal which is very important. Much easier to stomach that. Still no word on the agent fees and VAT though
Marko
Can you imagine the comments on here if Sanllehi came out and said we’re not going to buy anyone because we shouldn’t do that and lay off 55 people.
The redundancies come back to a question I raised yesterday about the business model moving forward. When attendance is allowed, presumably it will be with reduced numbers until there is a vaccine. I am guessing that season ticket holders will be allowed to attend every third game. Imagine what that will do to Arsenal’s revenues. It’s true that a new TV contract may compensate with more games, maybe (as Pedro has suggested before) a TV season ticket of sorts. But it is hard to justify spending millions on new players when you’ve no way of calculating you’re revenue. Anybody else… Read more »
Marko
VAT’s yesterdays cost it’s all about NIC now.
Captain Tierney,
Just to say thanks for the article on Cagigao in The Athletic you linked to – really, really illuminating on what’s actually involved in player transfers from when a player is originally scouted to when he is (or is not) finally signed.
It really does make a mockery of all the good guy versus bad guy narratives on here regarding Raul vs Sven, Emery vs. Sven and/or Raul, not to mention the debate regarding data-driven transfers vs contacts/shadow agent-led transfers.
Marko You are confusing the 2. The cuts don’t mean we don’t invest in the team. We need to obviously. Its means that we have an owner who could have covered the salaries of the 55 but chose not to. I am assuming its not a ton of money if that many low level employees were cut. We had almost all players take a cut, I am guessing to help with this situation. The fat rat did not take the cut. that is why Ozil is once again in the spotlight. Trust me, id rather not speak of this arsehole… Read more »
Hopefully the Cagigao stuff isn’t true. We’ll wait and see.
Ha bloody ha.
Minutes after I post my comment I find out that Cagigao is sacked!!!!
I take it all back: Raul and Edu truly are evil, and Kia rules the roost.
NJ
If ST holders are only allowed to attend every third match my season ticket cost for PL matches will be free, add in the Cup credits and you’re still only looking at less than £400. I don’t know that the average ST cost is but if mine was there or there abouts the ST revenue for the club will be £16 million.
That’s the thing people assuming that it’s low level employees are probably wrong. I read something there a few weeks back where over the whole playing staff and players and kids at what not was at some ridiculous number over the whole club basically insinuating that a fuck tonne of coaches and players were set for the chopping block at Arsenal. My hope is that the really talented people are going to survive the culling
Marc,
Yes, that is my point. The business model won’t be sustainable without a TV season ticket. AST people recently suggested that the club will be broke by next year without a return to full attendance. .
From Raul’s mouth:
https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/Headline/Arsenal-SACK-head-of-international-scouting-Francis-Cagigao-as-they-cut-costs/2411297
Jeez man, life comes at you fast sometimes.
Thanks Pedro, good post! 55 redundancies wow, this is the moment Stan is meant to dip into his or his wife’s personal wealth and ensure this doesn’t happen. In regards to Willian and Coutinho – A 2 + 1 contract is a better deal to swallow than 3 guaranteed years for a guy just turned 32. If the Guendouzi + £9 million exchange happens and that’s our only cost(excluding wages) and not the loan fee before an enormous obligation to buy the season after then its not bad at all. Looking at it optimistically if both work out, they fill… Read more »
Pedro you really are a know it all when it comes to transfers On th one hand you bleat about quality then when your wet dream arteta chooses players as he knows way more the. You ever could and you still criticise Mate are you at the top of your profession ? Made the billion yet? No ? Then why are you telling pros in football how to do Their jobs? Stick to being a Wage slave it takes guts to make decisions like the jbew football mangers do they live and die by them Fans have a shopping list… Read more »
It’s sad that people are getting fired in this virus economy but Arsenal are bloated with office employees.
I remember interview with Wenger when he was talking about changes since he took over and one thing he mentioned was that club employed seven people in front office when he arrived and now there 650 employees.
I would like to know what all those people do all day? If we serious about cost cutting and directing all savings to buy players, I am certain there is lots of fat to be cut.
NJ
It won’t only be us – it’ll affect all clubs. We will be hurt badly because we have a high percentage of revenue through match day attendance figures.
People still thinking we’re going to spend fortunes are bonkers.
The question is are we the only broke club in the premier league.
Financial situation of AFC was very dire even before outbreak of COVID-19 but now things are getting out of hands. What’s happened at Arsenal is a mere reflection of the world at large. We have already witnessed large scale job cuts in most companies across the world and we are staring at unprecedented level of unemployement in the next few months.
‘If that’s true and the salary is what Pedro mentioned it’s nto a bad deal if he’s a player that Arteta wants.’ Marc Its not a ‘not bad deal’ in these circumstances. Its a great deal. Dont know how the bandits that were labelling it will stomach that. If you are ignorant enough to criticize something when you dont have full knowledge about it then have the guts to track back and give praise where its due. Woab I didnt link the Athletic article. Someone else did. I just posted those snippets And No , Cagigao is not sacked. He… Read more »
Keep calm Tim Lewis is now overseeing all this from the Board of Directors….. IT’S UNDER CONTROL
Oh wait , Reports coming out that Cagigao is actually sacked.
Bad day for the club if true.
Chilean scout Eduardo Hagn is reportedly his replacement.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8596389/Arsenal-SACK-head-international-scouting-Francis-Cagigao-cut-costs.html
Keep calm Tim Lewis is now overseeing all this from the Board of Directors….. IT’S UNDER CONTROL
Oh yeah phew you’re right.
No but seriously I hope and have my doubts over the Cagigao news given apparently he’s got a long standing relationship with Raul/Edu/Arteta. I’m not sure the idea that 2/3 deals with Kia completely destroys that relationship
Oh wait , Reports coming out that Cagigao is actually sacked.
Bad day for the club if true.
Chilean scout Eduardo Hagn is reportedly his replacement.
Jesus Christ that’s just some fan with a few thousand followers it’s a joke ffs
“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“ Not a fan of this blurred picture painting. Our business hasn’t solely been peak/last legs players as we hope for a quick fix these past 3 years. Last summer for instance was nothing remotely like it and all but David Luiz were 24 and younger. Same with this window. Remains to be seen what Willian (32) and Coutinho (28) will be part of when all is said and done. If we land Gabriel (22),… Read more »
Funny how under Raul tenure, heads of recruitment who oppose the contact approach in favour of a more orthodox methods either scouting or analytical get sacked or leave by mutual consent.
Sacking your head of recruitment just at the beginning of the TW is well strange…
Cagiago and some scouts sacked per that Daily Mail report
Guess those salaries going to agents fees now… SMH lol
Its groundhog day Pedro….
Pedro Every major business in the UK is going through making significant cost cutting exercises so it is hardly surprising that Arsenal are going through same process. It is well known that Arsenal have had a bloated staff which grew dramatically during the Wenger era. So cutting staff by what is about 7% not extraordinary. The one issue which will stick in the craw is that Arsenal are paying £350 K pw or over £18 million a year to Ozil who is absolutely unproductive. I am pretty sure that the 55 staff cost collectively less in wages than we are… Read more »
Wasi
I haven’t criticised the deal – don’t know what you’re talking about.
We’re seeing conflicting reports on Cagiago – all seem to stem from the Daily Mail but one minute it’s sacked and the next it’s redundancy.
Is there a more trust worthy source? The Daily Mail is an absolute rag.
Yeah again I remain sceptical of the news because it would not be a good look for Arsenal to get rid of the man who was responsible for signing Martinelli and Saliba.
Stroller,
Arsenal was said to already have the smallest scouting department of the big six. Many would say that making it smaller when you are trying to rebuild a squad may be counter productive.
At least it is counter intuitive. It would make more sense to sack them AFTER the transfer window.
“Sacking your head of recruitment just at the beginning of the TW is well strange…“
Arsenal aren’t doing any scouting currently, if we don’t have a list of names on the 5th of August I’d sack everyone who works in the scouting department.
CC
Very good point!
Funny how under Raul tenure, heads of recruitment who oppose the contact approach in favour of a more orthodox methods either scouting or analytical get sacked or leave by mutual consent.
It has bugunnnn
Ah no but seriously I thought Tim Lewis was brought in to oversee spending and all that shite. Are we selective with our Boogeymen? I think so
Kroenke should be helping out here.
If Arsenal need to save money,sack Edu.
What does he do, anyway?
It would be crazy to sack Francis Cagigao
He would play an important role if Arsenal are to recruit well.
Özil stance that he would agree to a larger pay cut if he could see a one year plan for the club is starting to look more like prescience. Especially with the report at the time that he wanted assurance that no further redundancies would take place for a year.
Reports saying now Willian is agreeing a 2 year deal. Not sure if that means on high wages tho
Either way, I’d much rather a 2 year personally.
It will be a good buy if Coutinho can be gotten at the price being muted. He will bring experience to the team and will be an upgrade on present Ozil.
So we can’t afford to pay 55 staff and make them redundant ….
Only club to get players to take pay cut.
Billionaire owner.
Ozil on 350k a week not even warming the bench.
F*cking joke and not a way I’d expect arsenal to treat people!!
So surely we won’t be signing anyone then if we can’t pay 55 normal salaries?!
Eduardo hagn ?
I’m thought it was a joke been following his profile (Twitter) since operates like an ITK though
Let’s wait and see
Also worth pointing out Cagigao has survived at least two “restructuring” or culling of staff on the recruitment side in the last few years. My guess is if anything does happen there’s actual thought and proper reasons behind it and it’s not just some bollox about super agents and contacts.
Valentin
How was the club supposed to put out a 1 year business plan when months later we still don’t know when fans will be back in the ground?
You really do pick any side against the club.
Since January #
Marc most foreign news websites in China are not blocked but the daily mail is 😂😂
They let a lot of shit pass but they just couldn’t accept the Daily Mail!
Plus Val you didn’t read that article about Cagigao earlier if you think he was a fan of data/analytics driven signings
Marc
That second line was not meant for you.
It was for the bandits.
Eduardo Hagn is a twiiter account lol.
Wasi
No worries mate.
CC,
I thought that Cagigao had been promoted as head of recruitment and not just scouting. He was involved not just in spotting Martinelli, but also in convincing him to join.
We already sacked the youth scouts with a promise that we might rehire them in September which we will not.
Do you believe that anybody of quality will want to join us after seeing how we treat somebody of his reputation who has been at Arsenal for decades?
Any other (reputable, mainstream) source other than the Mail reporting that Cagigao has been sacked/made redundant.
The initial impression I got was that it was mainly hospitality people who’d been let go, which though sad made sense given no matchdays.
Getting rid of key long term football people is another thing entirely.
China
Can’t make my mind up whether to laugh or cry at that!
##** There should be a question mark after “made redundant”
Especially with the report at the time that he wanted assurance that no further redundancies would take place for a year.
It was no further pay cuts would take place. You’re on a roll today
You’re right Val….when should have made Ozil CEO
Companies are laying off staff, don’t know why Kroenke is being mentioned here, what is he meant to do? Pay them from his personal wealth?
An airline here in Nigeria laid off 65 pilots, the airline owner is a billionaire.
AFC is a job like any other job, you go with the realities of the times if you are running a business.
WOAB
My thoughts exactly.
The dedicated scouting model has lost the war. We can only assume Arteta is happy with this. Sometimes we assume a person thinks a certain way and we can be completely wrong. It maybe that Arteta is four square behind the super agent model and it appears increasingly that Kroenke is as well. So Raúl does not appear like he was at risk of the chop. Sadly it was the 55 underneath him .
I do actually wonder whether the change will have any negative impact at all?
Marc, Plans can change, but if you think that most large Business do not have contingency plan for different scenarios you are sadly mistaken. Those redundancies were always in the plan, but they just waited the FA Cup to announce it. I just wonder what else is planned but not yet announced. Spurs requested a loan from the UK government and that plan involved a repayment in one year time. You don’t get a loan of that magnitude without showing the first draft of a credible exit strategy. If Spurs can have a plan, why can’t Arsenal. BTW, Have you… Read more »
Receding,
Agree with you about the realties of running a business, with one proviso.
If the senior executives at the football club are letting hospitality people go in the absence of matchdays, that makes sense.
If they are using the downturn to get rid of football process that may well be a politically opportunistic way of getting rid of opponents/awkward people.
Yeah Marc normally stuff would be blocked for political reasons but I don’t even think the daily mail talks much about China so it literally just appears to be that they want to protect their people from the dangers of reading that filth 😂😂😂 ‘IMMIGRANT MUSLIM BENEFITS SCROUNGER LET OUT OF PRISON EARLY’ standard daily mail headline When I worked at a co-op as a student we had to tie up all the unsold newspapers at the end of the day and we used to have a game called guess the Daily Mail headline and it was easy as fuck… Read more »
*football process people
China1,
Always loved the way Private Eye calls the Daily Mail the “Daily Heil”.
Valentin
Of course businesses will have contingency plans – that’s the point. The current situation is unique I’m not aware of football ever having to face something lie this so they will have plans that can evolve depending on what happens.
You think that they’re going to lay everything out to Ozil?
What email do you mean? I get half a dozen a week.
It’s all very well saying that buying older, established players hasn’t worked for the past couple of seasons when the manager during that period was generally considered to be unfit for purpose.
Dortmund don’t have as many competitors going for the Champions League spots.
Is Val suggesting Arsenal get a loan from the UK government like Spurs did?
Good idea? Seems clever? I definitely wouldn’t have seen any criticism coming from you if we had in fact done exactly that
Words if you mean Cagigao, well i don’t know what happened there. However man has been here for what? 23 years? I think all things considered Arsenal have done okay by him. This club has been under performing in various aspects for so long i am not too fussed at who is forced out and for what reasons, that’s just the way office politics work. We as fans should be more concerned as to what happens on the pitch come match day, whatever happens behind the scenes i am not privy to, so i am not in a hurry to… Read more »
How much does Cagigao make ? Anyone want to take a gander at how much Arsenal scouts get paid?
WOAB,
That was the issue at the time that Arsenal was using the genuine COVID-19 issue to surreptitiously execute their long term plan to lower the wage bill at the expense of the players.
Getting rid of long term employees who can literally save the company millions (Martinelli, …) may provide a temporary short term financial benefit, but longer term may come back to bite us back.
China
It’s like the Express – runs one of the following headline topics everyday.
“The EU are bastards”
“Heatwave on the way”
“Big freeze on the way”
“Statins will kill us all”
“Statins will cure everything”
I’m thinking of getting Boris to set up a “media overview” department and put me in charge. All I’ll need then is a nice thick wall and a firing squad who are keen on overtime.
Marc,
Email from Arsenal asking about my intention for coming season.
If they are using the downturn to get rid of football process that may well be a politically opportunistic way of getting rid of opponents/awkward people. Words that genuinely feels like a stretch and part and parcel of an agenda of fear mongering against certain individuals. Plus it doesn’t hold much water considering Cagigao is apparently close with Edu and Arteta since their playing days and since Raul backed him on signings last summer. Christ he was our scout in South America or Brazil while Edu was at Corinthians and then Brazil. The idea that they perhaps don’t get along… Read more »
For those stressing over the terms sacking and redundancy the press usually saying sacking as it has more impact. Sacked / made redundant/ mutual consent it’s still losing a job. The contracts within football will be very well paid but with easy ability to terminate. I suspect the chief scout will now be quite a wealthy man and time to have a think on his next move. It is always sad though particularly after such long service
Valentin
No haven’t seen that one – when did you receive it?