Arsenal’s non-playing staff have been left delighted after an official club conference call highlighted the generosity of the majority of Mikel Arteta’s playing squad.

Staff were left ‘pleased and satisfied’ after listening to the call confirming Arteta, his senior coaches and most of his players had specifically insisted that funds from their 12.5 per cent pay cut were to be chanelled towards helping lesser paid colleagues in a strong show of financial solidarity.

The 2pm call on Monday was the brainchild of head of football, Raul Sanllehi and managing director, Vinai Venkatesham, in order to fully communicate the act of generosity towards the Gunners’ administrative staff - who play such a vital role behind the scenes in keeping the club running.

To the employees’ delight, Venkatesham and Sanllehi informed staff that Arteta and the vast majority of his playing squad had taken a pay cut, not only to help the club’s finances – but specifically, to actively help far lower paid members of the ‘Arsenal family’.

According to a well-placed source, office and academy staff listened intently to the club’s hierarchy, explaining that the players insisted their wages be channeled towards cushioning the financial impact of coronavirus on their lesser-paid colleagues.

“The staff were impressed that the players wanted their salary cuts to be used to save those at the club on lower wages,” the source told the Gooner Fanzine.

“The players wanted to give up their money to help lower paid general, academy and coaching staff to ensure they weren’t financially disadvantaged, while also preventing the club from considering furloughing them at a later date.”

Arsenal at the forefront

Arsenal have led the way by becoming the first Premier League squad to agree such a pay cut, with only West Ham and Southampton players accepting wage deferrals so far.

The cut – which Arteta did extremely well to seal among the majority of his 27-man playing squad - will see Arsenal’s £230m wage bill fall by around £25m.

The figure will considerably offset forthcoming financial challenges the club will face caused by the lockdown during the global pandemic from a loss of financial and commercial income – including funding the wages of non-playing staff.

Arsenal’s response to Covid-19 has been exemplarily

Arsenal’s response during the deadly Covid-19 outbreak has been exemplarily from the moment the club announced head coach Arteta had been infected with the killer virus.

The club immediately made the information public and shared what they knew with the wider world - while all those who came into contact with the highly-rated young boss were tested and placed in self-isolation.

Thanks to that openness, Manchester City vs Arsenal, scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, became the first match in the UK to be cancelled due to coronavirus, prompting the Premier League to scrap the following weekend’s entire programme – considerably lowering the possibility of the spread of the virus among hundreds of thousands of football fans up and down the country.

While coronavirus gripped the country Arsenal then acted with a moral compass rather than in a moral vacuum by making it emphatically clear early on that they would not be taking government – and taxpayers – money by refusing to tap into the state’s staff retention scheme.

Spurs shamed

The club guaranteed the pay of all employees and casual staff, firstly until the end of April, then the end of May – which stood in direct contrast to the initial money grab of government coffers by near neighbours Spurs.

Shamed by an uproar among all right-thinking football fans the Lilywhites changed their mind – but the damage had been done to their reputation.

All the while Arsenal continued to help local charities and organisations with substantial six figure donations. The north London giants also redirected £50,000 to Islington Giving Crisis Fund with official club cars seconded to frontline NHS staff – with many non-playing staff also volunteering to act as drivers for essential key workers.

The Gunners have also given support to local schools and a pupil referral unit while offering digital resources for primary school children in the area.

Further afield Arsenal have bolstered their Coaching For Life schemes in Jordan and Indonesia.

It is understood three of Arteta’s first team squad have so far refused to agree to a pay cut - with talks ongoing among the club, the trio of players and their representatives.

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