Gunners axe staff but big-name deals still on track
ARSENAL are making 55 staff redundant due to the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis – but are still pushing ahead with signing plans this summer.
It’s prompted a backlash from fans on social media and the club face a difficult moral argument as to why they can make nearly 10 per cent of 590 staff redundant while still buying new players.
The Premier League giants are laying off people from their
BY JOHN CROSS commercial and administration departments along with football operation. It’s unlikely to impact the first-team set-up but the scouting department is affected.
Yet they’re also preparing to make big-name signings with Chelsea’s Brazilian star Willian set to arrive on a three-year contract worth £150,000-a-week.
Arsenal are also confident of tying down Pierre-Emerick
Aubameyang to a new deal worth £250,000-a-week and top earner Mesut Ozil has a year left of his £350,000-a-week contract.
Billionaire owner Stan Kroenke has underwritten club expenditure in the transfer market last summer and the crippling cost of the pandemic.
Arsenal players took a 12.5 per cent pay cut for a year, although 7.5 per cent of that is paid back after they got into the Europa
League. But Arsenal have lost £2m in gate receipts for every game behind closed doors and the drop in TV revenue hit hard.
A club statement read: “These proposed changes are ultimately about ensuring we take this great 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.”