Ian Wright Defends Myles Lewis-Skelly Amid Arsenal Transfer Concerns
Ian Wright has launched a fierce defence of Arsenal academy product Myles Lewis-Skelly and taken aim at the growing role of intermediaries in the club’s transfer dealings, calling the current situation “baffling”.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, the former Arsenal striker dismissed suggestions that the teenager is being pushed towards a move and insisted the noise is not coming from the player’s camp.
“I don't know where that's coming from because I know for a fact that's not coming from his team,” Wright said. “It's not coming from his mum. Arsenal fans need to chill out with his mum saying that she's touting him about. Myles has already said he's happy to stay.”
For Wright, the solution should be simple. If Arsenal want to keep Lewis-Skelly, he believes the club should make that stance unmissable.
“Why have Arsenal not just said he's not for sale?” he asked. “He'd be a great signing for Manchester United, of course he would. Look what he's doing.”
That, in Wright’s eyes, is where the real concern lies. Not with the player, but with the way Arsenal are now operating in the market.
“There's things happening and this again is what I'm worried about with Arsenal, it's the way we're doing business with intermediaries now,” he continued. “How's that story happening when we know for a fact they're happy and want to stay?”
Wright then widened his criticism, pointing to another key figure in the squad.
“[Gabriel] Martinelli has not been contacted by anybody at the club but has been touted about everywhere, who is doing that? Why is that happening?”
The 60-year-old also questioned what he sees as a contradiction in Arsenal’s transfer strategy. On one hand, they are linked with some of the world’s biggest stars. On the other, homegrown talents find themselves under constant financial scrutiny.
“You know what's confusing? How can we be in for Vinicius Junior when we're looking to break records trying to sign this guy but now we're desperate to sell. What's going on?” Wright said.
“We've got a big squad and somebody has to leave but it seems like everyone leaving Arsenal is going to Turkey, that's another thing.”
He then turned to the harsh reality of modern financial rules and how they impact academy graduates.
“The unfortunate thing you get when you've got a player who comes through the academy and breaks in to the first team and does what they do, you've always got that noose of pure profit on them,” Wright said.
He drew a parallel with Ethan Nwaneri, another highly rated product of the club’s youth system.
“It's the same with Ethan Nwaneri. I'm hearing now that they're not going to sell him they want to loan him which I'm quite pleased about because I don't think at any stage he's had a run to have a go at playing in that team.”
For Wright, Lewis-Skelly sits at the heart of this tension: a young midfielder performing at a high level, admired across the league, but publicly insisting he wants to stay.
“When you've got someone like Myles who is playing well, it's unbelievable what he's capable of doing then of course Manchester United will see if something can happen,” he said. “They've seen Guimaraes come in they've seen Declan Rice.”
Yet despite that interest, Wright maintains the player’s stance is clear.
“He doesn't want to leave and that's the thing that's really baffling me is why Arsenal don't just come in and say he's not for sale.”
In a summer where profit and potential seem locked in a tug of war, Wright’s challenge to his former club is blunt: pick a side, and say it out loud.
