Mikel Arteta has underlined Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s value after a promising preseason, describing the teenager\u2019s form as a \u201cgood sign\u201d while rival interest continues to surface.<\/p>\n
Reports have linked the Arsenal midfielder with outside attention, with The Guardian stating he was \u201coffered\u201d to United and that Chelsea were also \u201cmade aware of his availability.\u201d BBC Sport, however, have reported that Lewis-Skelly remains determined to stay at the Emirates Stadium and fight for his place.<\/p>\n
The England international added to his preseason momentum by scoring in Arsenal\u2019s latest friendly, netting in the 1-1 draw with Como before celebrating with a heart gesture toward the home support.<\/p>\n
Arteta declined to discuss the speculation after the final whistle, but was keen to assess the player\u2019s contribution and attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to score a goal, you should be emotional when you score a goal,\u201d Arteta responded when quizzed about Lewis-Skelly\u2019s celebration. \u201cHe\u2019s a very emotional player. I remember when he did all the gestures on the pitch [last season]. I\u2019m not going to talk about any speculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is a speculation about our player, it\u2019s a good sign. That means that we attract attention and they\u2019re doing a good job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he had a really good preseason. I think we asked him to play in a different position, because he played more as a six, because we lacked central midfielders, obviously with international duties, and I think he had a really consistent preseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis-Skelly\u2019s immediate future remains unresolved, but his situation also sits against Arsenal\u2019s wider squad planning. The club are looking to recoup funds after spending on Guimar\u00e3es ($101 million), Christos Tzolis ($45.4 million) and Piero Hincapi\u00e9 ($45.4 million).<\/p>\n
As an academy graduate, he would count as pure profit if sold, giving Arsenal greater flexibility before the September deadline. The club have already made four signings this summer, including Illan Meslier on a free transfer, but Arteta made clear more may still be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more that we want to do because every time we have an opportunity to improve the squad and bring more quality and depth to the squad, we need to do that,\u201d Arteta insisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actively trying to do so. The thing in the market is that it doesn\u2019t just depend on you. We are very clear on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the approach, the will and the desire of the club, that\u2019s unquestionable. We want to try to do that. But we cannot promise that we\u2019re going to do it because it doesn\u2019t only depend on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta praised Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s preseason form as transfer interest surfaced around the Arsenal youngster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,1843],"tags":[180,1980],"class_list":["post-18463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-arsenal-transfer-news","tag-player-news","tag-pre-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}