Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted the club may have to make difficult decisions over the futures of some long-serving players, insisting that such conversations must be handled with “real honesty and transparency”.

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Arteta addressed the issue on Thursday ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Coventry City, saying the club had a responsibility to make football decisions even when they could be difficult for players who have been at the club for a long time.

“It’s a really, really tough moment, you need to face that reality.

“But you need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that’s exactly what you need.

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“You might not like what you’ve been told, but if it’s truthful, if it’s the reality, if it’s honest and it’s going to help you to make better decisions and have more clarity for the next steps in your career, you have to do that,” the coach said in a club statement on its website.

He said such discussions were difficult but necessary when a player no longer feels important or wants to pursue another chapter of his career.

“These are always very difficult conversations, but they need to be done,” Arteta said.

“It’s like when a player doesn’t feel that he belongs or he’s important, he wants to have a different chapter, I think that communication has to exist and it has to be both ways.”

Arteta said Arsenal would seek to preserve respect for players even when their time at the club comes to an end.

“We all know, everything has a start and has an end,” he said.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria