Arsenal have told staff that around 60 jobs are at risk in a sweeping off-field restructure, just months after the club ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title — and barely a week after Mikel Arteta signed a new contract reported to be worth around £20 million a year.
Staff Told on Wednesday Morning
Staff were informed of the decision on Wednesday morning during a call with chief executive Richard Garlick, according to reporting first carried by the Telegraph and followed up by The Sun. The roles under threat sit in off-field, administrative and office-based departments rather than on the football side of the business.
The restructure follows a review of the club's operations carried out by US management consultants Boston Consulting Group, who were brought in earlier this year to examine how the business is run. Arsenal are understood to have been considering changes to the workforce even before the title was lifted in May.
Several areas will be protected from the cuts. The coaching and performance staff around the men's and women's first teams will not be directly affected, the Hale End academy is untouched, and roles in the Arsenal Foundation, community programmes and the security department are also safe.
The Numbers Behind the Decision
The timing will jar with supporters, but the club's accounts explain why the hierarchy believes it has to act. As Roundtable set out, Arsenal posted record revenue of £691 million for the year to May 2025, yet still recorded a loss of £1.4 million — a seventh consecutive annual loss since the club last made a profit in 2017-18.
Operating costs excluding wages jumped from around £147 million to £200.8 million in a single year, with the club pointing to higher staging costs, property matters and inflation. The wage bill, meanwhile, reached a club-record £346.8 million, and winning the league triggered substantial bonus payments written into player contracts.
That wage pressure is not easing. Bukayo Saka and William Saliba have signed new long-term deals, Rice is in advanced talks over a major pay rise, and Arteta himself committed his future last week — success, at Arsenal, has become an expensive habit to maintain.
Echoes of 2020
This is not the first time Arsenal have cut jobs in a moment of celebration. In 2020, during the pandemic, the club made 55 roles redundant shortly after winning the FA Cup, a decision that drew a fierce backlash from supporters — not least when it emerged that the long-serving performer behind the Gunnersaurus mascot was among those affected.
Finance expert Kieran Maguire has suggested the owners are using the goodwill generated by the title to make unpopular cost decisions while their popularity is high. It is a colder reading of the situation, but the parallel with 2020 gives it weight: then, as now, the argument from the top was sustainability, and then, as now, the people paying for it were the lowest-profile employees at the club.
So What: What Happens Next
The immediate consequence is a consultation period and a nervous few weeks for dozens of staff who helped deliver the most celebrated season in a generation. The wider consequence is reputational: Arsenal have spent years positioning themselves as a community club, and cutting 60 roles while handing the manager one of the richest contracts in world football tests that image hard.
On the pitch, nothing changes in the short term — the football operation is ring-fenced, and Arteta's squad will not feel this directly. But tighter financial rules across the Premier League mean every champion now has to prove success can pay for itself. How Arsenal handle the human side of this restructure will shape how this title era is remembered off the pitch as much as on it.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Winning the league was supposed to change everything at Arsenal — and for 60 members of staff, it has, just not in the way anyone celebrates. A club that loses money on record revenue does have a problem to fix, but fixing it on the backs of office staff a week after a £20 million-a-year managerial deal is a choice, and choices like that tell you what a club really values. The trophies are real. So is the bill — and Arsenal have decided who pays it.
What do you think — necessary financial housekeeping, or a champions' betrayal of their own staff? Have your say in the comments.
