Why Arsenal’s very own Morgan Rogers will never play for the club again

The goal for Arsenal this summer is clear. They need to strengthen their attacking line.

One year on from bringing in the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze, it would appear that Mikel Arteta is not totally happy with the options at his disposal.

It has seen plenty of ceiling raisers targeted with the likes of Bradley Barcola, Eli Junior Kroupi and Club Brugge’s Christos Tzolis all looked at.

Yet, the number one target for the Gunners is currently Morgan Rogers. It’s just a pity he may cost upwards of £130m.

Why Morgan Rogers is Arsenal’s number one target

With Arsenal’s requirement for an out and out winger this summer, it is perhaps something of a surprise that Rogers has emerged as Arteta’s dream target.

After all, this is a player who is in a similar mould to Eberechi Eze. The Aston Villa star is an attacking midfielder/winger hybrid. The belief is that if he moved to the Emirates Stadium he would play as more of a winger.

With that in mind, the move begins to make more sense but it does feel unlikely they will spend anywhere close to the sort of fee Villa are looking for. The price will need to come down considerably.

At £130m, he is not worth the money. At closer to £90m, however, he would be. The fact is that he is a Premier League proven player and Arteta values that incredibly highly.

The vast majority of his business in recent years has seen him raid fellow English sides with Declan Rice from West Ham remaining their record signing at £105m. Rogers may well come close to that.

The advantage he has over the aforementioned Barcola is that experience of English football. At the age of 23 too, he has plenty of room to grow and develop. He’s already particularly consistent and could go to new levels at Arsenal in a more ball dominant side.

In 2024/25 as he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award, the Villa star scored 14 goals and supplied 16 assists in all competitions. Last season he scored a further 14 and supplied 12 for his teammates.

While from a creative viewpoint, he may not be as strong as skipper Martin Odegaard, he is an exceptionally powerful runner and that is something Arsenal miss from their flanks and central areas.

The England international would definitely give Arteta’s attacking lineup a different dimension.

What Rogers’ arrival would mean for the Arsenal squad

Last summer it was all about adding depth. This summer, it’s about adding quality, it’s about adding players who can help them win the Premier League back to back.

That is bad news for several members of the forward line. Rogers would not be arriving to play second fiddle. This is a player who starts most games. He has only missed two league matches in the last two seasons.

Arsenal have reportedly already accepted a £17m offer from Besiktas to sell Leandro Trossard and the arrival of a new winger could also be curtains for Gabriel Martinelli. The fact he can play through the middle may also damage the game time of Eze and Odegaard.

However, what this move would certainly be is fatal for Ethan Nwaneri. Heading into this summer, there was already a thought that he may have played his last game for Arsenal and the likelihood of him leaving is now becoming greater. Rogers, a player capable of playing in similar positions, would not bode well for Nwaneri at all.

Add the potential addition of another winger into the equation too and it’s not good news for the Hale Ender at all.

The fact is that this summer, supporters cannot afford to be sentimental. It is likely that a few well-loved players leave the Emirates Stadium.

But, where has it all gone wrong for the teenager after such an excellent breakthrough campaign in 2024/25? During that season he was compared to Lionel Messi by Joe Cole and scored nine goals in 37 games. He looked like something of a homegrown Rogers, a player capable of starring on the flanks but also in the middle. He was a relentless runner and powerful carrier, much like the Villa man.

Arsenal’s youngest-ever player, the future has always looked bright for Nwaneri but after a troubled 2025/26, it looks like the end of the road for the 19-year-old in north London.

The Gunners still rate the teenager highly. They handed him a new contract last summer and a first-team squad number (22). Yet, he simply couldn’t break into the team. During the first half of last season, he didn’t start a single Premier League game, prompting a loan move to Marseille for the second half of the campaign.

Yet, after Roberto De Zerbi left, he couldn’t get into the team there either. The young Englishman only started three times in Ligue 1 and did not come off the bench in any of the last four matches.

Nwaneri is still an incredibly exciting young player but in a summer where Arsenal need to sign a couple of elite forward players and subsequently make a few sales, Nwaneri stands next to no chance of featuring for the Gunners again.

Another loan move would be beneficial but in age of PSR where an academy product would represent pure profit, perhaps they are better off selling now. It would be a sad end to his time at the Emirates Stadium.