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