October 5th was a bag of mixed emotions for Arsenal fans: they signed Thomas Partey, a player they had been begging for all summer, all the while seeing Jerry Quy, more commonly known as Gunnersaurus, made redundant by the club.
The arrival of the Ghana international was well received, as he brought stability to a midfield that was sorely lacking some, but the loss of their beloved mascot was a big blow, regardless of whether he was needed or not due to the lack of fans in stadiums these days.
One man who didn’t take the news well was Arsène Wenger, who is currently doing a tour of interviews to promote his new book, telling So Foot as much in a lengthy interview on Friday.
Asked how he experienced the decision to lay off Quy the same day the club spent £50m on Partey, the Arsenal legend replied: “Badly. The decision was financially unjustifiable. I don’t know what got into them. No one can understand it. Everyone who loves Arsenal didn’t take the decision well. I’m part of them.
“They laid off 55 people, which could possibly be explained by a certain reorganisation, a desire for efficiency. The mascot cannot be justified by a desire to rebalance finances. It’s incomprehensible”.
Mesut Özil took it upon himself to pay Quy’s wages to him ‘as long as he is an Arsenal player’ (which will likely be until the end of the season), but that certainly doesn’t make up for the club’s decision to make redundant someone who likely wasn’t costing them that much and had been at the club for the past 27 years.
That’s how Wenger sees it, and that’s how a lot within the Emirates fanbase and outside it are likely to see it too, even if it’s been reported Quy would get his job back once fans returned to stadiums.
Then again, no one knows when that will be.
