Jamie Carragher Defends Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly Against Transfer Rumors
Jamie Carragher has slammed the idea that Arsenal would even entertain selling Myles Lewis-Skelly, describing the young midfielder as “pretty special” and insisting he “can’t believe” the club would consider moving him on.
Arsenal, fresh from their Premier League title win, have been aggressive in the market, landing Christos Tzolis, Bruno Guimaraes and turning Piero Hincapie’s stay into a permanent deal. In the middle of that business came a jarring rumour: Lewis-Skelly, who impressed in midfield at the back end of last season, had supposedly been offered to Chelsea and Manchester United.
On The Overlap Fan Debate, Carragher made it clear how little sense that talk made to him.
“That’s the thing that was a little bit strange about it,” he said. “It felt almost like Arsenal offered Manchester United Myles Lewis-Skelly.
“It wasn’t Myles Lewis-Skelly saying, I want to leave, or his people putting something out. That’s where the shock came from, not so much the players’ side of it.”
Carragher then went straight to the evidence that shapes his view. Not training clips. Not hype. Games. Big ones.
“I still can’t believe it,” he continued. “Obviously, last season wasn’t great for him for the whole season, but when a young player has already put in performances like I’ve seen him put in at the Bernabeu – maybe over a year or 18 months ago, at left-back, he was running the game at the Bernabeu – and then his performance in the final in central midfield against Paris Saint-Germain.
“You can’t play at that level unless you’re pretty special at that age. All young players have ups and downs. Last season he didn’t play as much as he probably would have liked.
“But his ceiling is so high for the performances he’s already put in as a 20-year-old kid. I couldn’t believe that Arsenal would even think about letting him go. It does feel like a strange one.”
The suggestion that Arsenal had actively pushed Lewis-Skelly towards Premier League rivals has now been firmly knocked down.
Reports from Caught Offside, The Athletic and the Daily Mail all state that no such offer was made. Arsenal are not looking to sell, and the player is not agitating for a move.
Mark Brus, writing for Caught Offside, underlined that stance: he revealed he had “double and triple checked” with his sources and found “no desire for Arsenal to sell Lewis-Skelly, nor does the player himself wish to leave.”
He also pushed back on the idea that Chelsea and Manchester United had “rejected” the teenager, pointing out the obvious: “you can’t reject a player who isn’t for sale and who isn’t looking for a move.”
So the picture is clearer. Arsenal’s summer reshuffle is real, the ambition is obvious, but when it comes to Lewis-Skelly, all roads currently lead back to north London – and to a club that still sees a very high ceiling rather than a saleable asset.
