Jamie Carragher Calls Myles Lewis-Skelly Transfer Rumors Strange

Jamie Carragher has branded talk of Arsenal entertaining offers for Myles Lewis-Skelly as “strange” and “unbelievable” – and insists the youngster has already shown he belongs at the very top.

Arsenal, fresh from their Premier League title win, have moved aggressively in the market, landing Christos Tzolis, Bruno Guimaraes and turning Piero Hincapie’s stay into a permanent deal. In the middle of that business, though, came a rumour that cut across the feel-good mood at the Emirates.

Reports suggested Lewis-Skelly – who impressed in midfield during the run-in last season – had been offered to Chelsea and Manchester United as part of Arsenal’s reshaping. The idea alone stunned Carragher.

Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, the former Liverpool defender could not hide his disbelief.

“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 back to the games that changed his own perception of the teenager. Not under the radar fixtures, either.

“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.”

For Carragher, those nights in Madrid and against Paris Saint-Germain are the sort of reference points that clubs usually cling to, not casually place on the market.

Rumours knocked back by Arsenal briefings

As the noise grew – with talk of Chelsea and United supposedly “rejecting” a potential deal – the story began to unravel.

Multiple outlets have now pushed back on the suggestion that Arsenal shopped Lewis-Skelly around. Caught Offside, The Athletic and the Daily Mail have all reported that the north London club did not offer the midfielder to their Premier League rivals.

Mark Brus, writing for Caught Offside, went as far as to say he had checked the situation repeatedly.

“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,” he wrote.

“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 looks very different to the one painted in the initial swirl of speculation. Arsenal are building a title-defence squad around established stars and emerging talent. Lewis-Skelly, by all credible accounts, remains firmly in that second category – a “special” project, not a bargaining chip.