Arsenal: Arteta defends cutting up to 60 jobs days after signing deal worth over £20m a year

Arsenal told staff on Wednesday that up to 60 jobs are at risk in a restructuring, according to the Guardian, which reports that the club hopes to redeploy some of those affected. The news comes days after Mikel Arteta signed a four-year contract extension worth more than £20m a year.

Catering and travel hit, sporting staff spared

According to the Guardian, the review was run by the Boston Consulting Group and overseen internally by managing director Richard Garlick. Catering and travel are the departments affected; the performance and coaching staffs of the men’s and women’s teams, the academy and the foundation are not. The background is financial: operating costs rose from £148m to £201m in the 2024-25 accounts, and owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment wants spending down despite the title won in May.

Putting people in the right roles

Asked at his Friday press conference ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest, Arteta defended the decision: “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.” On the contrast with his own wages, he pointed back at the club: “Obviously I am not the right person to answer that question. That’s for sure.” Arsenal then shut down any further questions on the subject.

On the pitch the coaching staff is untouched, and Arsenal, second on fifteen points, travel to the City Ground on Sunday, where Nottingham Forest sit fifteenth on five. The odds have not moved with the story: Arsenal are 1.71 with 1xbet, a little under six chances in ten by the market’s reckoning.