Mikel Arteta has been told Arsenal‘s redundancies will help the club “achieve the success we want to create” after it emerged the Premier League champions are set to cut 60 jobs.
Chief executive Richard Garlick informed staff this week that Arsenal’s workforce will be reduced across a number of departments — although the playing and coaching staff in the men’s and women’s teams will be unaffected.
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The cuts are set to impact up to 7% of the club’s 871 permanent staff.
Arteta was last week rewarded with a new four-year deal, worth as much as £20 million ($27m) a season, after he oversaw Arsenal’s first Premier League title since 2004.
Arsenal’s turnover for the 2024-25 season was a record £691m ($920m).
“First, this question is not for me,” Arteta said on Friday when asked about the expected job losses in his news conference ahead of Sunday’s league match against Nottingham Forest.
“It was explained to me about the exercise, and the analysis that has been done across the club, and 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 the success that we want to create. That has been explained.
“Obviously, I am not the right person to answer to that question. That’s for sure. And hopefully everybody will respect that.”
Arteta did not take any further questions on the topic at the request of the club.
The 44-year-old Spaniard also confirmed that the club will retake Arsenal’s official squad photo following William Saliba‘s omission.
The France international, who last season played an integral role in the club winning the league title, was conspicuous by his absence from the picture which was released on Thursday.
He is currently sidelined with a back problem, and Arsenal said he was not available because of a “medical appointment.”
“We have tried to do that picture three times already,” explained Arteta on Friday. “We had to cancel it at the last minute for different reasons.
“We have some commercial obligations, and we had people that flew over because of that. We decided to do that picture at least.
“We’ll have another picture with the whole family. Hopefully we can get them all together at some point. He [Saliba] knows how loved he is. He’s completely fine about it.”
Saliba has not played since the World Cup but there is an outside chance he could be available before the international break next month.
Martín Zubimendi is in contention to face Forest despite sustaining an ankle injury in training directly after Arsenal’s win over Leeds at the Emirates Stadium last weekend. Piero Hincapié, who also suffered an ankle problem during the post-match session, will not feature.
