Why Arsenal’s £80m transfer pursuit is bad news for Myles Lewis-Skelly

Arsenal have two major goals this summer as they aim to win the Premier League for a consecutive year.

Indeed, after taking home the title for the first time in 22 years, Mikel Arteta and Co now want to build a dynasty. They will need to go big in the transfer market in a bid to rubberstamp their dominance over the English game.

Fortunately for supporters, they look well set to do that. One of the objectives is to sign a new forward with Morgan Rogers topping the list. He allegedly wants to join too. Good news all round.

The other objective is to sign a new midfielder to help ease one of the areas of the pitch that was rather an into the ground last term.

In that regard, several players have been linked.

Arsenal could sign big-money midfielder this summer

The big news in recent days out of Arsenal is that they want to sign Bruno Guimaraes. He appears to be the leading midfield target right now.

The Gunners have established contact with the player’s camp but an offer floated of £55m via intermediaries has been rejected. As a result, the north Londoners now intend to open direct club-to-club talks.

The trouble with this one is that Newacstle will not want to lose Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali. The latter has been courted by plenty, including Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

As a result, Andrea Berta and Co need to ready a batch of alternatives. Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi is one and another is Bournemouth’s Alex Scott.

Last week it was revealed that Arsenal would very much like to sign the player but his situation with the Cherries is a complicated one. Bournemouth are in no mood to sell and would like to tie down the Guernsey-born midfielder to a new contract.

Still, the Gunners are confident of eventually getting their man. The Daily Mail report that Arsenal and another suitor in the form of Manchester United are growingly increasingly optimistic of being able to sign him.

It may, however, take a bid of £80m to convince Marco Rose’s side to sell. They are, of course, no longer managed by Andoni Iraola.

Why Alex Scott would be bad news for Myles Lewis-Skelly at Arsenal

It’s safe to say that Myles Lewis-Skelly has had two very different seasons in senior football.

A year ago, the teenager was fresh off a breakthrough campaign with Arsenal. While he did not start the season as a regular, he sure ended it as one.

He dominated PSG and Real Madrid in the Champions League, scored a lovely goal on his England debut and then had the cojones to copy Erling Haaland’s celebration after scoring against Manchester City.

Lewis-Skelly doesn’t have an ego but there is an arrogance and confidence to his game and mentalty that has taken him to this level. He’s one of the finest young footballers in the world but not every player gets to the top the easy way.

Indeed, had it not been for Martin Zubimendi falling out of form, we may now be discussing a possible exit for the Hale Ender. After all, in a world of PSR, the 19-year-old would be seen as pure profit.

Alas, after struggling for much game time at all during 2025/26, starting just once in the league between August and April, he ended the campaign by starting three of the last four domestic fixtures and the Champions League final. It was not at left-back, however, where he earned those minutes, it was in midfield.

It’s why the addition of Guimaraes, but in particular Scott, could be particularly damaging to him.

It feels as though just as Lewis-Skelly has built up Arteta’s trust again, he could be bunted to the sidelines to sit on the bench. The fact is that while Scott and Arsenal’s teenage sensation are not directly alike, they would both be fighting for the same position as the number 8 in the manager’s midfield.

The composure and press resistance Lewis-Skelly has is simply remarkable but Scott is cut from a similar cloth. As podcaster and writer Adam Joseph put it, akin to Mateus Fernandes and Elliot Anderson, he is “press resistant, progressive, ball-carrying midfielder who links play & drives into the final third.”

Described as “one of the best midfielders in the Premier League” by Iraola, the Cherries star is only getting better and compared to the Arsenal teenager, offers more in the final third, scoring four times last term. Lewis-Skelly only has one senior goal at club level. That’s perhaps unsurprising given the latter has been more of a defender over the last two years.

That said, if Arteta is looking for someone to take his midfield to the next level, particular as a left-sided 8, Scott is your man, even if he is allegedly a Tottenham supporter.

The Spaniard has proven to be ruthless on plenty of occasions with his team. The departures of Emile Smith Rowe and Aaron Ramsdale despite not doing much wrong is evidence of that. If a big-money midfielder arrives, Lewis-Skelly could find himself flung to a similar scrapheap.