After being used as pawns in Vinícius Jr’s new contract at Real Madrid — hey, that used to be our role, back in the days of Sergio Ramos! — Arsenal have gone out and spent big on Bruno Guimarães instead, signing the midfielder from Newcastle United for a cool £75m.
As usual, the arrival of a big-money signing is expected to be bad news for homegrown talent, in this case for one Myles Lewis-Skelly, who started the Champions League final back in May yet now finds himself being shopped around like some
Bomb Squad castoff. According to multiple reports on Tuesday, both Chelsea and Manchester United were offered the chance to sign the 19-year-old versatile midfielder and left back. However, as per The Telegraph, neither team are interested in doing so, certainly not at the expected £45m price point that Arsenal would be expected to demand.
In Chelsea’s case, the main reason cited is the fact that we’ve spent £300m this summer already — including on a fairly similar profile of player (at least positionally, if not stylistically) in Valentín Barco — so even if Lewis-Skelly would fit the BlueCo blueprint, we really need to be focusing on outgoing transfers and moves the rest of the window.
For his part, Lewis-Skelly is said to be hoping to stay and fight for his spot … but having seen this type of story play out many times at Chelsea over the past two-three decades, I’d say he’s facing a steeply uphill battle.
