£130m star is very open to joining Arsenal

Arsenal were not hammered in the Champions League final, far from it. Supporters may not like to remember it but it was a set of two penalties from Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes that saw PSG reign victorious in Budapest.

Before that, the Gunners only conceded a spot-kick in normal time to the eventual winners. For all of the talk about Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the build-up to the game, Mikel Arteta‘s side did keep them all relatively quiet.

Yet, it was hard to ignore the difference in quality between what Luis Enrique and Arteta had at their disposals.

As the Arsenal boss said after the game, now is the time to be ambitous, now is the time to go to the next level. Signing their own versions of Doue and Co could help with that a great deal.

£130m star is now open to joining Arsenal

For once, it looks as though the Gunners will neglect the defence this summer as they bid to improve their side.

Instead, it’s all about the forward line. It’s all about making them ready to win the Champions League. After winning the Premier League, this is now the one the players want.

Several options are on their radar. The aforementioned Barcola is a player they are reportedly ready to launch a bid for but that may well depend on what happens with the Morgan Rogers saga.

The latest on that one, according to reports, is that the player has told Aston Villa officials he would like to explore a move to the Emirates. The player has agreed personal terms but Villa and Arsenal are some way off concluding payment terms.

A deal that also looks a long way off right now is that of Julian Alvarez. Still, in the last day, the Gunners have been given fresh hope that a move could be possible.

Alvarez’s situation at Atletico Madrid is already one of the biggest stories of the window with Real Madrid lodging a whopping £130m offer for the Argentine, only to see it turned down.

Then, on Monday evening, the striker released a statement. Amid claims that the player wants to join Barcelona, he said: “The best thing for me is a transfer and I want to fulfill my dream.”

Reporting after that news, trusted club insider Hand of Arsenal provided an update on the situation. He revealed that Alvarez has already agreed personal terms with Barca and wants to join them. However, Atleti are adamant they will not sell to the Catalan club.

As a result, Arsenal are well and truly back in the hunt for this one. HOA claims that Arsenal have been working for a year on the Alvarez file with Andrea Berta having been in regular talks with the player’s camp since last summer.

Despite his dream of moving to Camp Nou, it is said that the former Manchester City man is “very open” to joining Arsenal and has communicated that he would join them if he cannot sign for Barca.

Why Alvarez should be Arsenal’s number one target over Rogers

It is clear to see why Rogers is Arteta’s number one target this summer. The Spaniard has always preferred to buy from within the Premier League for several key reasons.

The first is that they have already proven they can do it in English football and the second is that they require little adaptation time to get up to speed.

In Rogers, they would be ticking so many boxes. They need a winger and they need a powerful runner, someone who can get the team up the pitch quicker and more effectively. While it’s likely the Villa man would play on the left, he would also represent an upgrade on Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard in the centre of the pitch, particularly when it comes to ball-carrying.

The scorer of 14 goals and an assister of 12 last term, he’s been remarkably consistent over the last couple of years, not least with his level of performance – winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2024/25 – but also with his availability. Rogers has only missed two Premier League games in the last two seasons.

Yet, despite that, Alvarez should be their number one priority. The most exciting transfer in football is always the addition of a new centre-forward and the Argentine would give them that.

Rogers is a mighty fine player and would bolster their options on the left but there is a sense that since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left, they have missed an elite-level striker. Not since the days of Robin van Persie have they truly had the best attacker in the Premier League.

While Alvarez may still lag behind Erling Haaland, the man he played second fiddle to at City, it would bring Arsenal closer to the Citizens with regards to general attacking play.

After all, it was not long ago that journalist Roy Nemer called the 26-year-old the “best centre-forward in the world” and Joe Cole celebrated him as a “Ballon d’Or winner of the future.”

It’s hard to dispute with those claims. While Rogers flirts with inconsistency in a Villa shirt, Alvarez is the type of player who always remains involved, even if he is not scoring.

During the World Cup winner’s final season at the Etihad, he not only bagged 19 goals but he also registered 13 assists. Likewise last term, he was not far off those same levels, scoring 20 and supplying nine for his teammates.

Not just one of the most prolific strikers in Europe’s top five leagues right now, he’s also one of the best outside of the penalty box.

Indeed, when it comes to expected threat in the build-up phases of play, Alvarez ranks among the top 9% of positionally similar players on the continent. Viktor Gyokeres, for context, ranks as lowly as the bottom 20% for that metric.

Rogers would no doubt improve Arsenal but Alvarez would be the exciting game-changing addition signing that this era has required for years.