Mikel Arteta insists the Arsenal hierarchy had every right to ask the players to take pay cuts to save jobs and then make redundancies anyway.
Arteta begins his first full season as Unai Emery’s successor at Wembley on Saturday when his FA Cup winners take on champions Liverpool for the Community Shield.
That cup success at the expense of Chelsea was the undoubted highlight of a period when the Gunners made eyebrow-raising decisions off the field.
On 21 April, just over a month after the Covid-19 crisis brought football to a halt, Arteta, a majority of his first-team squad and the coaching staff took a 12.5 per cent pay cut that the club claimed at the time showed “their backing for the Arsenal family”.
However on 5 August, when negotiations with ex-Chelsea winger Willian for a three-year deal worth up to £21.5m were almost completed, Arsenal revealed 55 lower-paid jobs were to be shed.
Arteta said he “understood” the inevitable criticism that followed but argued that the move had been taken in the club’s best interests.
“If you are only looking at the financial point of view you can get some contradictory messages,” he said. “But what is very clear is that the club had a very thorough plan of how they needed to restructure in order to function better and be more stable for the future. They were very convincing with every argument they gave to all of us that it was the right thing to do.
“Obviously it’s really sad and it was during the Covid period that we had to make the decision to get our players to contribute to the pay cuts.
“The players were happy to contribute and help the club in this difficult financial position. That doesn’t mean that afterwards you are going to have a say in every decision made by the club. It can’t work like that.
“At the end of the day it wasn’t an obligation, it was a choice whether you wanted to do it or not. And we tried to do the right things as human beings to help a club that has been supporting us, in my case for many years, whether you were injured, sick, performing or not performing.
“The club has to be free to try to fight for the future in the most positive and stable way.”
The scouting department was hardest hit, with Francis Cagigao, the man who discovered Cesc Fabregas and Gabriel Martinelli; head of UK scouting Peter Clark and Brian McDermott all departing.
Head of football Raul Sanllehi turned out to be another casualty 10 days later, with his role taken over by managing director Vinai Venkatesham as the Gunners moved towards a more agent-based approach in the transfer market.
“The club made a very difficult decision,” said Arteta of Sanllehi’s departure. “Now we have to figure out the best way to run our club on the sporting side.”
The quick turnaround from the FA Cup final on 1 August to Saturday’s curtain-raiser has given Arteta a headache as players have been given staggered return dates to training and a number have been self-isolating following holidays abroad.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno, now recovered from the knee injury he suffered at Brighton on 20 June, is set for a return as Emi Martinez spent time in Portugal, which is regarded as a high Covid risk by the UK government.
“It’s a very challenging period for all of us having to go away and come back in such a short space of time,” Arteta said. “As well, we don’t know what’s going to happen when they go to internationals because depending on where they go, are they clear to come back? We have some uncertainties that need to be resolved.”
Follow i sport on Facebook for more Arsenal news, interviews and features
More on Arsenal
- Cunningham: Arsenal’s players should ask for their money back after Kroenke’s £325m windfall
- Is it really worth it? Arsenal need to take a long, hard look at their relationship with this super agent
- Opinion: What Arsenal’s ‘nauseous’ statement on Ozil and China says about the club
- The road to 2024: How a new Champions League format could leave Arsenal high and dry
- Magee: Arsenal’s Europa League exit shows Arteta cannot work miracles with this squad
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2QwXKRy
Post a Comment