Arteta defends Arsenal's 60 redundancies a week after signing £20m-a-year contract

Mikel Arteta defended Arsenal’s decision to make 60 employees redundant at a press conference ahead of the club’s Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest, one week after signing his own new £20m-a-year contract at the Emirates.

Chief executive Richard Garlick informed staff of the cuts in a call earlier this week. The redundancies affect a significant proportion of Arsenal’s 871-strong workforce, though the playing staff have been shielded from the restructure. The club recorded revenues of £691m for the 2024-25 financial year.

Arteta was careful to deflect detailed questions, insisting the decision was not his to explain. “First, because this question is not for me,” he said. “It was explained to me about the exercise and analysis that has been done across the club — with the intention always to evolve, to improve. Some decisions have to be taken to put people in the right roles and keep investing to achieve what we want to achieve and the success that we want to create. So that’s been explained. Obviously, I’m not the right person to answer that question. That’s for sure. And hopefully everybody will respect that.” He declined to take further questions on the matter.

Arsenal brought in external consultancy Boston Consulting Group to conduct a full operational review aimed at improving the club’s efficiency. The timing of the announcement — coming just days after Arteta’s contract extension was confirmed — has drawn sharp criticism from supporters and industry observers alike.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire described the situation as an “own goal”, and the backlash has drawn comparisons to the widespread job cuts at Manchester United following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover. Former United head coach Ruben Amorim was among those who publicly expressed regret over the impact those redundancies had on morale across the club.

The controversy arrives at an awkward moment for Arsenal, who won their first league title in 22 years in 2024-25 and are widely regarded as one of English football’s most commercially successful clubs. Critics have questioned why a club generating nearly £700m in annual revenue needs to shed dozens of staff roles, and the optics of a manager receiving a landmark pay rise in the same week as the cuts were announced have compounded the reputational damage.