Arsenal's Head of Recruitment to Leave Amid 55 Planned Redundancies

 Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, pictured in July. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, pictured in July. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
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Arsenal's Head of Recruitment to Leave Amid 55 Planned Redundancies

 Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, pictured in July. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, pictured in July. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Arsenal’s head of recruitment, Francis Cagigao, is among 55 staff members who will leave the club after a swathe of redundancies was announced.

Cagigao has forged a formidable reputation during 24 years of service at Arsenal, for whom he also played as a youngster, but he has been told his services are no longer required and will leave when terms between the parties have been finalised.

The head of UK recruitment, Pete Clark, and the former Reading and Leeds manager Brian McDermott are other members of the scouting department to be dispensed with, and others are understood to fear for their positions amid a significant restructuring.

The decision to release Cagigao will come under particular scrutiny given his glowing track record, which has earned him a reputation among the world’s top talent spotters. Cesc Fàbregas, Héctor Bellerín and Gabriel Martinelli are among the young players he unearthed, and he has been instrumental in numerous other high-profile deals in the past two decades.

But while there is surprise and considerable anger internally regarding the redundancies, there is also a certain sense the scouting department had been considered ripe for targeting. Arsenal’s hierarchy is perceived to have chosen a more agent-led approach to earmarking players over the past 18 months, with Kia Joorabchian’s influence coming under increasing scrutiny, and disquiet about their processes has been growing.

Staff in other areas will also be affected. A joint statement from the managing director, Vinai Venkatesham, and head of football, Raúl Sanllehí, argued the proposal to cut jobs was necessary because Arsenal, whose largest shareholder is the American businessman Stan Kroenke, have suffered severe drops in commercial and matchday revenue as a result of Covid-19. They are the first Premier League club to announce major job losses.

Venkatesham and Sanllehí promised the cost-cutting measures would allow Arsenal to keep investing in their squad. The club, who qualified for the Europa League after winning the FA Cup, are trying to convince Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to sign a new contract and hope to bring in Willian on a three-year deal when his Chelsea contract expires this month. Mesut Özil, their best-paid player, earns £350,000 a week.

“Our main sources of income have all reduced significantly,” Venkatesham and Sanllehí said. “Revenue from broadcasters, matchday and commercial activities have all been hit severely and these impacts will continue into at least the forthcoming 2020-21 season.

“We all hope there will be no ‘second wave’ but we also need to accept that is one of the many uncertainties ahead of us and plan accordingly. Over recent years we have consistently invested in additional staff to take the club forward but with the expected reduction of income in mind, it is now clear that we must reduce our costs further to ensure we are operating in a sustainable and responsible way, and to enable us to continue to invest in the team.

“Our aim has been to protect the jobs and base salaries of our people for as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we have now come to the point where we are proposing 55 redundancies. We do not make these proposals lightly and have looked at every aspect of the club and our expenditure before reaching this point. We are now entering the required 30-day consultation period on these proposals.

“We know this is upsetting and difficult for our dedicated staff and our focus is on managing this as sensitively as possible. These proposed changes are ultimately about ensuring we take this great football club forward, creating the right organisation for a post-Covid world, and ensuring we have the resources to return to competing effectively at the top of the game here and in Europe.”

In April Arsenal agreed a 12.5% pay cut over the next 12 months with most of their men’s first-team squad and all the coaching staff. The cut is due to drop to 7.5% as a result of Europa League qualification. Arsenal’s wage bill in their most recently published accounts, for 2018-19, was £232m.

The club continued to pay staff in full during football’s lockdown instead of falling back on the furlough scheme. The club’s 14 executives agreed to a one-third salary cut for the next year.

In a statement the Arsenal supporters’ trust criticised the cuts: “AST is sad to see the news that 55 members of staff are to be made redundant. Arsenal players have contributed to savings at the club by taking voluntary wage cuts. We had hoped these savings would be used to ensure all Arsenal staff are looked after in these difficult times.”

The Guardian Sport



Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
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Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)

Manchester United needs to win seven of its eight remaining Premier League games this season just to match its worst-ever points total in the modern era.

That's how bad it's got for the record 20-time English champion in a crisis-hit campaign.

“We have to get it right fast,” head coach Ruben Amorim said after Tuesday's 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

United’s lowest points total since the Premier League began in 1992 was 58 in the 2021-22 season. It is currently on 37, with 24 more points to play for, The AP news reported.

Seven wins would give Amorim’s team the 21 points needed to reach 58.

To put that in context, United has not won back-to-back games in the league all season. The last time it managed that was in the final two games of the previous campaign.

Amorim, meanwhile, has only won six and lost nine of his 19 league games since taking over in November. United has won 10 in total.

New lows The loss to Forest was United's 13th in the league this term. Last year's total of 14 defeats was the club's worst in the Premier League era.

Amorim said in January that this might be the worst team in United's history and things have only got worse since then.

While there is little danger this season of one of the world's most storied teams being relegated from the top flight for the first time since 1974, it will almost certainly hit new lows in the modern era.

United's lowest league position in the Premier League was the eighth-place finish overseen by former manager Erik ten Hag last year. It seems unlikely Amorim will be able to better that, with his team eight points below eighth-place Fulham.

Based on form, the likelier scenario is United finishes the season even lower than it already is, with Tottenham, Everton and West Ham all within touching distance.

Years of decline This season continues United's onfield decline since managerial great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after winning the club's last league title.

It was his and United's 13th championship of the first 20 years of the Premier League. The club hasn't won another since.

Its lowest finish in the Premier League under Ferguson was third.

Goal drought Among United's many problems this season have been a lack of goals. The Forest game was the 11th time it has failed to score in the league - prompting a desperate Amorim to play center back Harry Maguire in attack as he went in search of a late equalizer.

Maguire came closer than any of his teammates to scoring when seeing a stoppage time effort cleared off the line.

“We deserved more in this game, that is clear, but it was our fault. We need to be better in the last third," Amorim said.

Rasmus Hojlund, a striker signed from Atalanta for $82 million last season, has only scored eight goals in his 41 games in all competitions this term.

Strike partner Joshua Zirkzee has scored six in 45 appearances. United has scored 37 in the league all season with a goal difference of minus-4.

Amorim, however, insists he sees improvement.

“I don’t lie to myself," he said. "Everybody can say whatever they want to say, I see some things, but we need to win games.”