Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta can understand the criticism of making redundancies while preparing to go on a transfer spending spree.
But he insisted they needed to make changes to ensure future success and stability as they looked to streamline several departments at the club.
The Arsenal boss said: “I understand. If you are only looking at the financial point of view you can get contradictory messages.
“But the club had a thorough plan of how they needed to restructure in order to function better and be more stable for the future. They were convincing with every argument they gave.
“It's sad and it was during the Covid period that we had to make the decision to get our players to contribute to the pay cuts.
“One of the reasons was to maintain some of them."
