Arteta: Lewis-Skelly stays, but tough calls lie ahead
Mikel Arteta has put to bed any suggestions that Myles Lewis-Skelly could leave Arsenal before the transfer window closes, insisting the 19-year-old will “100 per cent” remain at the club.
Much to the alarm of supporters, reports circulated earlier this summer claiming intermediaries had invited the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea to consider moves for the Hale End graduate.
Lewis-Skelly’s representatives were quick to distance themselves from the speculation, while chief executive Richard Garlick has stressed this week that Arsenal were “not actively looking at selling homegrown players”. He did, however, hint that every player has a price in the right circumstances, comments that only fuelled the debate.
Having broken into the first team as a left-back during the 2024/25 campaign, Lewis-Skelly found opportunities harder to come by last season, making just a couple of Premier League starts before Christmas. His league minutes then dried up for almost three months before Arteta redeployed him in midfield against Fulham in early May. The teenager seized the opportunity with an outstanding display in a 3-0 win and never looked back, eventually earning a start in the Champions League final ahead of a fatigued Martin Zubimendi.
Now, with Zubimendi fully fit again and Bruno Guimaraes added to a midfield already brimming with quality, Lewis-Skelly faces another battle for regular minutes. At least he can approach it knowing his future lies firmly in north London.
Arteta used his pre-Coventry press conference to underline just how highly the club values players who have come through Hale End.
“The players that have been raised in our system, and they feel generally that love and that connection with the club, it brings something else, there is no question about that.
“We need to look after them in a really special way because they bring value that is very difficult to find.
“That’s why when we can we want to protect those assets as much as possible, develop them and make them extremely important for the club.”
While Lewis-Skelly’s position now appears beyond doubt, Ethan Nwaneri’s future is rather less clear. Having again invested heavily this summer, the temptation to bank a sizeable ‘pure profit’ fee remains obvious. The latest reports, however, including those from BBC Sport, suggest Arsenal would prefer the England under-21 international to spend another season out on loan before making a long-term decision.
If that proves to be the case, player sales will have to come from elsewhere. Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira are both expected to depart, while more difficult conversations may yet be required with Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and others as Arsenal continue to reshape the squad.
Asked how he approaches discussions with players who find themselves on the fringes, Arteta said:
“It’s a really, really tough moment. We need to face that reality. But I think you need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that’s exactly what you need.
“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.
“These are always very difficult conversations, but they need to be done. It’s like when a player doesn’t feel that he belongs, or he’s important, or he wants to have a different chapter.
“I think that communication has to exist and it has to be both ways. We all know that at the end, everything has a start and has an end.
“When it comes to the end, I think our duty, our responsibility is to do it in the best possible way, maintaining the respect and admiration for the player and the relationship, but understanding that at the end, we need to make football decisions.”
In truth, Arteta would probably rather avoid trimming the squad at all. Last season demonstrated how quickly injuries can leave even the deepest group looking alarmingly light in certain positions, a lesson that has clearly stayed with him.
“I would like to have the squad as big as possible because we know what we are fighting for, how long this [season] is. And we learn again from the past, especially last year, when we got in some difficulties, especially when we have two or three injuries in the same area of the pitch so the deeper the squad that we have, the better, we have to manage that.”
“But the players have to feel important and valued, and in order to do that, they need to play minutes.”
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