Arsenal left to count cost of missing out on Morgan Rogers
Morgan Rogers is thriving at Chelsea, and Arsenal are being left to reflect on what looks increasingly like a missed opportunity to sign him before he ended up in west London rather than north London.
According to football.london, Arsenal were linked with Rogers over the summer but ultimately missed out on the England international, who joined Chelsea instead. The report notes Rogers has scored six goals and provided four assists already this season, a return that already matches Leandro Trossard's Premier League goal tally from the whole of last season and is just one short of the combined total managed by Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli in the previous campaign.
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Why the deal fell through
Per the report, Arsenal's reluctance to move early proved costly. Rogers' price tag was understood to be lower before Manchester City's £116million purchase of Elliot Anderson, after which Aston Villa raised their valuation of Rogers given his status as a more accomplished, European proven player.
Arsenal are said to have had the chance to match Chelsea's eventual £117million offer for Rogers, a fee partly offset by Nicolas Jackson moving the other way, but were not willing to budge on their own valuation of the player. The same cautious approach is cited as the reason Arsenal never seriously pursued Bradley Barcola, a decision that is said to be looking more justified so far, while the earlier interest in Vinicius Junior is described as having seemed doomed from the start given the scale of package Real Madrid would have demanded.
Limited alternatives in the market
With Rogers gone, the report points to Christos Tzolis as a signing who was never really meant to replicate that kind of role for Arsenal, and who is yet to score in a competitive game for the club. Other names mentioned as potential alternatives include Antonio Nusa and Kevin Schade, though neither is viewed as being at the same level as Rogers currently is.
Nusa is not for sale at any price this winter, the same stance RB Leipzig held in the summer, according to football.london, and even next summer a significant offer would be required to change that position. Brentford are also described as shrewd negotiators who would demand a substantial fee for Schade.
The report concludes that Arsenal are effectively back to the drawing board in terms of finding a similar profile of player, with the market offering few obvious replacements for what Rogers has so quickly become at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal's business in the coming transfer windows, particularly in attacking areas, is likely to be shaped by lessons from how the Rogers pursuit was handled, with the club facing a market that has grown more expensive and more competitive since the summer.
