Arsenal's update let down the fans and shows sick side of football | OneFootball

“An update from your club.”

That was the title of the statement that made countless Arsenal fans feel more distant from the club than ever before on Wednesday afternoon.

The statement revealed the decision to fire 55 staff members. Or, to dehumanise them, make them “redundant”.

If there’s one industry that should be able to swallow the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it is elite-level football.

The vast majority of those let go are highly unlikely to be high-level, high-earning employees. Many are likely to be part-time matchday staff, currently not being used as the club continue to play games behind closed doors.

The average salary in the UK is around £29,000-a-year. If we assume the employees who are being fired are each on that,  Arsenal’s grand saving will amount to just under £1.6m a year.

That is a fifth of the reported signing on fee offered to Willian, who is also likely to be offered a three-year-contract worth a total of £18m.

How can Arsenal justify these 55 redundancies when they’ll commit to such an outlay for a 32-year-old who, while a talented player, is past his prime and unlikely to make too much of a difference for a team that finished eighth last season?

Especially when owner Stan Kroenke is worth a reported £6.3bn and the club itself is valued at £1.8bn, based on the price Kroenke has paid to secure his shares.

Winning the FA Cup last weekend meant £3.6m in prize money. A further £30m is expected as a result of the club qualifying for next season’s Europa League. How many more would have lost their jobs has Arsenal lost that game?

Back in April, the vast majority of the first team squad agreed to a 12.5% pay cut to help the club shoulder the financial burden of the pandemic, with the guarantee some of that money would be paid back if the season resumed and the squad delivered sporting success.

“If we meet specific targets in the seasons ahead, primarily linked to success on the pitch, the club will repay agreed amounts,” the club announced. “We will be able to make those repayments as hitting these targets, which the players can directly influence, will mean our financial position will be stronger.”

But not strong enough to pay both the players and keep those staff in place and the Athletic report on Thursday that players have reacted angrily to Wednesday’s statement, having agreed pay cuts under the impression it would ensure the club didn’t have to let staff go.

Mesut Özil reportedly refused to join in with the pay cut and is now being targeted once again but should it really be down to him, or any of his team-mates, to bail out the club and pay his fellow employees?

If anything Özil’s reluctance to join in with the squad-wide pay-cut, reportedly based on a lack of clarity on how the club would use that money, is more justified than ever.

Yes, footballers are well paid but that doesn’t enter them into a social contract to shoulder the financial burden that billionaires aren’t willing to take the hit on.

Kroenke, who owns the club, and employees its staff, is valued at 350 times more than Özil’s yearly wage on a contract that ends in a year. This isn’t the German’s decision, it’s the American’s.

It’s not on Özil, or any of the players, all employees of Arsenal, to make sure Arsenal pay all their employees.

Companies must do everything to protect their staff in these uncertain times. That burden falls on football clubs, genuine pillars in our society and our communities, heavier than on others.

Arsenal have betrayed that.

Is it made even worse by the fact Arsenal have appeared to use this blanket statement to hide a power grab behind the scenes?

Nestled amongst the redundancies was, reportedly, the decision to let go significant members of the scouting department.

The head of international scouting, Francis Cagigao, who has been at the club for two decades and is credited with discovering Cesc Fàbregas, Héctor Bellerín and Gabriel Martinelli, is reportedly one of those who will lose his job.

Head of UK scouting Peter Clark and his colleague, Brian McDermott, are also set to depart.

All while the club are strongly being linked with both Willian and Philippe Coutinho, two clients of agent Kia Joorabchian.

After Sven Mislintat was forced out last year and the club has repeatedly dealt with a select few agents, this looks like an effort to oust those who may have an issues with the club’s new way of conducting transfer business.

A close friend of technical director Edu, Joorabchian represents David Luiz and helped broker the loan deal to sign Cédric Soares in January. The right-back has gone on to sign a four-year contract before even playing for the club but made just three starts before the end of the season.

If Arsenal were genuinely interested in  cutting costs over the past few months they could’ve started by not signing the Portuguese.

Fellow agent Jorge Mendes helped the Nicolas Pépé deal along last summer and was reportedly heavily involved in the sale of Alex Iwobi to Everton, even though he didn’t represent the player and using an agent to arrange a deal between two Premier League clubs is incredibly uncommon.

“Your club”? Really?

Arsenal belongs to nobody but Stan Kroenke now and Raul Sanllehi, maybe the most powerful figure behind the scenes, has once again handed the keys to a man who does not have Arsenal’s interests at heart.

If financial heartlessness and the rise of agents are the two biggest sicknesses of modern football, Arsenal now look like a terminal patient.