Ian Wright Defends Myles Lewis-Skelly Amid Arsenal Transfer Chaos
Ian Wright has launched a fierce defence of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Arsenal’s academy stars, accusing intermediaries and mixed messages from the club of fuelling needless transfer chaos.
The Arsenal legend, speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, made it clear he believes the noise around Lewis-Skelly’s future is being driven from outside the player’s camp – and he’s baffled the club have not shut it down.
“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. Why have Arsenal not just said he's not for sale?
“He'd be a great signing for Manchester United, of course he would. Look what he's doing.”
That last line carried a warning. Lewis-Skelly is impressing, big clubs are watching, and Wright fears Arsenal are leaving the door open.
Wright questions Arsenal’s use of intermediaries
Wright’s frustration ran deeper than one transfer story. He turned his fire on the growing influence of middlemen around Arsenal’s business and the way stories are surfacing about players who, he insists, want to stay.
“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 said. “How's that story happening when we know for a fact they're happy and want to stay?
“[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?”
For Wright, that disconnect between the dressing room and the market rumour mill points to a deeper issue: too many voices, too many agendas, and not enough clarity from the club itself.
Confusion over transfer strategy
Wright then turned to Arsenal’s wider transfer policy, calling it “confusing” and highlighting what he sees as a contradiction between the names they are linked with and the players they might sell.
“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?” he 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.”
The tension, in his view, comes from financial rules that make academy products especially vulnerable. They count as “pure profit” on the books, and that, Wright believes, puts an unfair target on their backs.
“The unfortunate thing you get when you've got a player who comes through the academy and breaks into the first team and does what they do, you've always got that noose of pure profit on them,” he said.
Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri and the ‘pure profit’ problem
Wright namechecked Ethan Nwaneri as another example of a young talent whose future has been caught up in the numbers game.
“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.”
He sees Lewis-Skelly in that same bracket: a special academy product, already showing his level, and inevitably on the radar of clubs like Manchester United.
“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,” Wright said. “They've seen Guimaraes come in they've seen Declan Rice.”
That’s the market Arsenal are operating in now. Elite midfielders move for huge fees, rivals are watching, and any hesitation can be costly.
Which is why Wright’s biggest question is aimed not at agents, fans or other clubs, but at his own: “He doesn't want to leave and that's the thing that's really baffling me – why Arsenal don't just come in and say he's not for sale.”
