The fallout from Arsenal’s successful wage cut continues as ESPN via Sun Sports is claiming that younger members of the Arsenal squad feel that they have been pressured into taking a pay cut.
The Gunners have been in talks with their players to take a 12.5% cut on their wages for some time.
They finally found a breakthrough as 24 of their 27 squad members accepted the clubs’ wage plan, but others including Mesut Ozil refused to make the cut.
With fans and pundits commending the players who took the cut, it seems that not every one of them willingly did it.
The report claims that the club’s younger players would probably not have accepted a pay cut if they didn’t feel pressured to do it.
This would be another blow to Arsenal who wanted to maintain the image of positivity as they became the first Premier League side to convince their players to slash their wages to help the club.
Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff also took the cut as the club promised them £500k each which is redeemable over Champions League performances.
The same report claims that Ozil is now ready to take a cut as long as the club can explain to him the financial impact that the coronavirus outbreak is having on their finances.
My only comment on this would be that the youngsters are on considerably less money than the senior players. Although they still earn far more than the average teenager/twentysomething, this cut would have a much greater effect on their finances. They do not have years of playing in the PL on good contracts to build up a cash reserve.
When you reach the realms of Ozil, Aubamayeng, Laca and a couple of the others, then they have SO much money that it is almost impossible to spend it on a day to day basis. The financial hit is neither here nor there to people earning in excess of £10m pa
The decision reached by the players union was that no team or player should agree to a pay cut but should rather negotiate for a deferral. I am surprised that the Arsenal team is going against this recommendation.
Well
Perhaps Arsenal laid out the reality of the club’s financial health and acceptance became a no brainer