Jamie Carragher Defends Myles Lewis-Skelly Amid Transfer Rumors
Jamie Carragher has slammed the idea that Arsenal would even entertain selling Myles Lewis-Skelly, branding the young midfielder “pretty special” and insisting he “can’t believe” the club would consider moving him on.
Arsenal, fresh from their Premier League title win, have gone big in this window. Christos Tzolis is in, Bruno Guimaraes is in, and Piero Hincapie’s loan has been turned permanent. Big, established names for a squad that already knows how to win.
Amid all that noise, one story cut through: talk that Lewis-Skelly, who impressed in midfield late last season, had been floated to Chelsea and Manchester United as a potential makeweight. That suggestion jolted Carragher.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, he made his disbelief clear.
“That’s the thing that was a little bit strange about it. It felt almost like Arsenal offered Manchester United Myles Lewis-Skelly,” he said. “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 performances that shaped his view of the teenager.
“I still can’t believe it. 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 idea of Lewis-Skelly being “offered” around, though, has quickly been knocked down.
Reports from multiple outlets have poured cold water on the claim that Arsenal put the 19-year-old in front of Chelsea and Manchester United. Caught Offside, The Athletic and the Daily Mail have all stated that no such offer was made by the Gunners.
Mark Brus, writing for Caught Offside, underlined that stance in no uncertain terms: “I’ve double and triple checked this with my sources today, and, as I suspect has already been reported elsewhere, there is no desire for Arsenal to sell Lewis-Skelly, nor does the player himself wish to leave.
“It’s been suggested that Chelsea and Man Utd have ‘rejected’ the 19-year-old, but that’s not accurate – 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 are stacking proven talent around a homegrown midfielder whose best days are still ahead of him, not ushering him towards the exit. The real question now is not who might buy Myles Lewis-Skelly, but just how big a role he can carve out in a title-defending side loaded with stars.
