Myles Lewis-Skelly has struggled for game time at Arsenal this season and the club are open to selling the left-back to Manchester United if their valuation is met
Myles Lewis-Skelly could leave Arsenal in the summer(Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Arsenal will reportedly entertain interest from Manchester United in defender Myles Lewis-Skelly this summer, so long as their valuation is met. United have identified Lewis-Skelly as a potential successor to Luke Shaw at left-back and have received encouragement from Arsenal’s stance.
Lewis-Skelly enjoyed a breakthrough campaign under Mikel Arteta’s management last season, but has found minutes much harder to come by in 2025/26. The arrival of Piero Hincapie in the summer created fierce competition at left-back, with Riccardo Calafiori also above the 19-year-old in the pecking order.
He has made 28 appearances across all competitions, yet has started just once in the Premier League, racking up just over 300 minutes in total in the league. With Hincapie’s initial loan from Bayer Leverkusen set to become permanent this summer, it is clear that Lewis-Skelly may have to move in order to secure more regular game time.
And while Arsenal are proud of their academy graduates, it seems that Arteta and the Gunners hierarchy are taking a realistic approach to business. BBC Sport reports that Arsenal are willing to cash in on both Lewis-Skelly and fellow youngster Ethan Nwaneri but want a combined £100million for the duo.
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Nwaneri is currently on loan with Marseille, having left in January to find more regular game time. Like Lewis-Skelly, he saw his opportunities contract after an influx of new players in the summer.
Arsenal’s brutal stance on the current squad is shown by the fact that Gabriel Jesus, Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli could also be sold if the right offers come along.
Arteta was asked about the difficulty of striking a balance with providing opportunities to academy graduates and winning in his press conference before Saturday’s Premier League game against Bournemouth. He made it clear that youngsters have to fight for minutes because there are no hand-outs at the elite level.
“It’s part of us,” he said about Hale End graduates Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri. “I think at the end, what it has to define this football club is to seek for the excellence and to seek for the best, regardless of whether you’re coming from the academy or from abroad.
“At the end, if we can have players from Hale End, obviously much better because the identity is there. We grow with them, and they know exactly what we’re looking for. But then they have to earn it, and not for a week, not for a month, not for years like anybody else.
“It doesn’t matter what department or role you have in the club. At the end, you have to sustain performance and that has to be at the very highest level. If we want to win sustainably, we want to win.”
He added: “The margins are shorter, but we’re doing something as well that is unprecedented. We have players that played in competitions that nobody else has done at that age. I think the balance is there.
“We are doing everything that we can to accommodate that, especially because they deserve the opportunity, which is the best thing. Nobody is here to give a gift, an opportunity to somebody that doesn’t deserve it. Everybody that has been in and around the first team, they deserve to be there.”
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