Mikel Arteta has defended Arsenal’s controversial decision to make 60 staff members redundant, insisting the changes are designed to help the club “achieve the success we want to create.”
At the same time, the manager revealed that a new official Arsenal team photo will have to be retaken following the glaring omission and photo snub of star defender William Saliba.
Arteta Addresses Off-Field Job Cuts
The upcoming redundancies will focus strictly on off-field operational areas and will not affect the men’s or women’s coaching and backroom staff, security, community operations, or the Arsenal Foundation.
The news comes just a week after Arteta put pen to paper on a lucrative new four-year contract worth approximately £20 million per year. Speaking on the restructuring, the Spaniard explained:
“This question is not for me. 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 decision has to be taken to put people in the right roles, and keep investing to achieve what we want to achieve on the success that we want to create. So 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 declined to comment further on the matter.
Why William Saliba Was Missing from the Arsenal Team Photo?
Fans were left baffled earlier this week when Arsenal released their official 2026-27 squad photograph featuring the Premier League trophy and Community Shield without French international William Saliba.
The club confirmed that Saliba was absent because he was attending a doctor’s appointment on the day of the shoot.
Explaining the mix-up and addressing Saliba’s photo snub, Arteta revealed that commercial pressure forced them to proceed with the photoshoot despite missing one of their core players:
“So what happened was that we have tried to do that picture three times already, but we have had to cancel it at the last minute for different reasons.
We have some commercial obligations and had people who came and flew over to do that, so 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 one day, and will announce that as well.”
Saliba’s Reaction and Injury Update
Despite missing out on the official Arsenal team photo, Arteta assured supporters that Saliba took the situation in stride alongside his teammates.
“It wasn’t in his hands. But normally he’s happy about everything. And he knows how loved he is and they were taking some banter (about it). He’s completely fine.”
Saliba is yet to feature this season after requiring an extended period of rest to recover from a back issue sustained during France’s World Cup semi-final defeat against Spain over the summer.
However, the defender has recently returned to the grass at London Colney for individual training drills. Arsenal are targeting a return around the November international break while taking a cautious approach to his recovery.
“But every sign so far has been very, very positive. It will be great to have him.”