It’s fair to say that Arsenal love shopping in the Premier League. It’s been a solid reason for their improvement over the last several years.
The theory is that if you poach players already comfortable in England’s top-flight, then they shouldn’t need much of an adaptation period.
That’s certainly been true for a number of players Mikel Arteta has signed. Think Gabriel Jesus who scored five goals in his first eight games for the club. Think Golden Glove winner David Raya, £50m signing Ben White and to some extent Kai Havertz, who has become a key player.
The biggest success story, of course, has been club-record signing Declan Rice.
Signed for £105m, he’s made his price tag look like a bargain, dazzling on the biggest club stage of them all against Real Madrid and PSG.
So, could Arsenal look set to replicate that triumph in 2025?
Arsenal could sign another big-money Premier League star
Much of the talk this summer has surrounded who the Gunners could add to their forward line.
In the offensive positions, it looks as though RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko and Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres are the two prime candidates, but rumours linking Arteta and Co with Ollie Watkins are not going away either.
Arsenal lodged a bid for Watkins last January that was quickly rejected and just a few months later, they could turn their attention towards Villa again.
This time it may not be Watkins on the agenda either, with the Independent’s Simon Collings revealing this weekend that ‘Arsenal are admirers of Morgan Rogers.’
The report notes that the north Londoners are tracking a number of players but Rogers is someone that the recruitment team particularly like.
There are set to be some sizable obstacles in the way with previous reports suggesting Chelsea are interested in the Villa playmaker and that he could also cost in the region of £100m.
Why Rogers could replicate Rice at Arsenal
When you spend over £100m on a footballer, you expect immediate success. Sadly, that isn’t always the case.
Just look at Jack Grealish at Manchester City. A previous £100m buy, he’s not even among City’s travelling party for the upcoming Club World Cup.
For Rice, however, he’s only taken his game to the next level. Some players combust under the pressure of such a high price tag but the former West Ham star has only thrived.
Those remarkable free-kicks against Real Madrid will live long in the memory, with Rio Ferdinand suggesting that the England international has now “put himself in another bracket” of midfielders, having “run the show” in both legs against the Spanish giants.
Rice has been simply sublime in Arsenal colours and heads into next season off the back of a career-best seasonal haul of nine goals and ten assists in all competitions.
|
Declan Rice – season by season |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Games |
Goals |
Assists |
|
2021/22 |
50 |
5 |
4 |
|
2022/23 |
50 |
5 |
4 |
|
2023/24 |
51 |
7 |
10 |
|
2024/25 |
51 |
9 |
10 |
|
Stats via Transfermarkt. |
|||
Well, in Rogers, another possible £100m + Premier League star, they could be confident of sealing an equally good signing.
Aged just 22, the England international swapped Middlesbrough for the Midlands in January 2024 and 18 months down the line, he is now an “unstoppable” forward player in the words of Jamie Carragher.
An attacking midfielder by trade, Rogers cemented himself as one of the finest young players in the country throughout 2024/25, notably scoring a Champions League hat-trick against Celtic, on the way to collecting 14 goals and 15 assists across all competitions.
To put those numbers into context, the Villa star scored one fewer than Havertz (15) and registered the same number of assists as Bukayo Saka. On that evidence, he’s pretty damn special.
It’s rare you find a player you’re so confident will do well after investing in, but like Rice, Rogers would surely be that man.
Akin to Arsenal’s midfield maestro, the Villa sensation turns up in the big moments too. He scored against PSG in the Champions League quarter-finals, netted against Manchester City and also registered four assists in the last seven league games as Unai Emery’s men hunted down a successive year in Europe’s elite competition.
While they ultimately missed out on the final day, that lack of Champions League football may well actually help the Gunners if they decide to ramp up their interest.
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