Mikel Arteta has been widely misquoted by the media whilst talking about Arsenal’s decision to cut 60 jobs, with his words taken out of context to paint a different picture.
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Earlier this week, Sam Dean broke the news for The Telegraph that Arsenal had informed staff that they plan to cut 60 jobs as part of cost-cutting measures, with staff informed on a call with Richard Garlick on Wednesday.
Dean’s report added that management consultants Boston Consulting Group were enlisted by Arsenal to examine the business side of the club. The job cuts are reportedly concentrated on off-field areas, and won’t directly affect the footballing departments or roles in The Arsenal Foundation.
Mikel Arteta was then asked about about the job cuts in his pre-Nottingham Forest press conference, and if you believe the mainstream media headlines, he defended the club’s decision:
The issue is that Arteta explicitly wasn’t giving his own opinion when he used the much-highlighted “evolve and improve” line.
The Arsenal boss started the comment by explaining that he was repeating what had been explained to him, and ended it by clarifying again that he was reiterating the club’s explanation, whilst repeatedly insisting he wasn’t the right person to answer the question.
“Well said, first, because this question is not for me,” Arteta began.
“I was explained about the exercise and 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, and the success that we want to create.
“So that’s been explained (to me). Obviously I’m not the right person to answer to that question, that’s for sure, and hopefully everybody will respect that.”
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It’s clear in context that Arteta isn’t giving his own opinion, but rather telling the media what he has been told. As the manager of the football team, rather than the business, he obviously doesn’t play a major role in Arsenal’s off-field non-football employment decisions.
If someone needs to ‘defend’ the club’s decision on job cuts, it should be someone like Richard Garlick, who is actually involved in making that call.
But as the journalist asking Arteta the question pointed out, they don’t have a press conference with Richard Garlick, they have a press conference with Arteta. So they have to put the question to Arteta, even though they know it’s not up to him.
That all makes sense. The decision to then paint Arteta’s comments as his personal defence of the job cuts is more obviously cynical.
Photo via Arsenal.com