What is going on with Myles Lewis Skelly?

Arsenal have denied “offering him to Chelsea”
His agent (who is also his mother and has a brilliant story to tell) has also denied doing anything.

The Myles Lewis Skelly is a new type of transfer dealing where “intermediaries” with no connection to either Chelsea, Arsenal or the player try to manufacture a deal. I am calling them the “5th party”.

In this scenario, the 5th party have approached Chelsea, without permission from either MLS or Arsenal, and offered them the England youngster. Their aim is to kickstart a deal and profit at the end of it.

If Chelsea say yes, they then get numbers from Chelsea on a possible contract offer. They then approach the agent of the player and present those numbers. They portray themselves as working on behalf Chelsea.

If the agents bite and inform the 5th party that their client would be interested, they go back to Chelsea and let them know a deal could be done with the player. The buying club would the instruct the 5th party to continue the negotiations and come up with a number that Chelsea can agree to. If the deal gets this far, Chelsea, the 5th party, or even a 6th party then open up negotiations with Arsenal.

So you are in a scenario where a club had no original intention to sell a player, another club had no original intention to buy a player, and a player had no original intention of moving. But a deal the happens all because a 5th party, who is essentially a salesman, manufactures a deal.

They sell to the buying club that the player could be available for transfer. They sell to the player that the buying club is interested. And all they then need to do is help make the deal happen, and they pocket millions.

Agents used to exist to protect players. To ensure they got their clients the best deals. But these days you have these additional intermediaries who do not care about the player, and are not really acting on behalf of the player, or either club. They are acting on behalf of themselves to try to get a deal done which they triggered.

Most of the time, these deals die at source. The buying club has no interest in the player, or the player has no interest in moving. But every jow and again, like a scam phone call, the stars align and these 5th parties get lucky. The deal happens. And they take a slice of the agents fees for being part of the deal. And then chances are in 2-3 years time they run the same “scam” on either the same player, looking to move him elsewhere, or the same club, offering them someone else they have no relationship with.

This is one reason why the likes of Chelsea end up paying so much in agents fees. The day yea to almost everyone offering them up a player. And then have to pay them for helping trigger the deal.

Keenos

There is a key reason why Arsenal’s opening asking price for Gabriel Jesus is £20m. It is because we are willing to let him go for as low as £9m

Signing in 2022 for £45m, Arsenal have £9m of the initial fee yet to hit the accounts. That is the rock bottom the club would take for the Brazilian. Anything under would see the fee show as a loss on the accounts. Breaking even on the book value will be key for the club.

That £9m a year in amortised transfer fee is the equivalent of a new £45m signing, spread across a further 5-years. Put simply, we could sell Jesus for £9m, sign someone for £45m, and our amortised fee expenditure would remain neutral. Zero change.

More important than the transfer fee for Arsenal is the wages – Jesus is reportedly on a huge £265k a week, totalling £13.78m a year. That would save Arsenal £22.78m a year, once combined with the amortisation saving.

Put simply, Arsenal could commit to spending £114m over the next 5 years, and for 2026/27 our outgoing would remain the same. As long as Jesus left for £9m and Arsenal did not contribute to any future wages.

Rolling back to the £20m, Napoli would normally be happy to pay that for a player of Jesus’ talent. But they wouldn’t be happy to pay his huge salary. Not even for a year.

If Napoli sign Jesus for £9m, they could basically pay him a £10m “bonus” for signing, which would more than cover the difference between what Jesus was expected to earn at Arsenal over the next 12-months and the likely lower salary Napoli would pay.

It is a deal that then suits all teams.

Napoli sign a top player without breaking their wage structure, Jesus does no take a financial hit and gets a new 4 or 5 year deal with Napoli, and Arsenal free up the equivalent of £114m to be spent on someone new.

That £114m could see Arsenal sign someone worth £70m a year on £160k a week. Or for £50m on £240k a week. Other combinations are available.

So whilst Arsenal fans might be disappointed if we “only” get £9m for Gabriel Jesus, there is a bigger financial upside that the club will be acutely aware of.

Just like when buying a player, the transfer fee is jut part of the clubs total costs, when selling a player the sale fee is also just part of the picture. That £266k a week wages saving is huge.

Now how Arsenal spend the money would be a different story….

Keenos