I think we all have a right to be a little bit disappointed that we did not get Morgan Rogers over the line.
Ultimately, Chelsea have come in and committed over £200m to the transfer – £117m, £10m in agent fees an a 7-year £250k a week deal. Arsenal were just not willing to match that offer.
On one hand, I get the argument of “the market has shifted and this is what players of Rodgers quality costs. We now need to shift our mindset”.
On the other, Berta, Arteta et al will know exactly what our budget is this summer on transfer fees, wages, etc. And maybe they had a limit of £80m and £200k a week for Rogers. Had we matched what Chelsea are paying, it might have impacted our other transfer targets.
And ultimately, a left winger (or forward in general) is not a priority right now.
Trossard OUT, Tzolis IN meas we still have two left wingers at the club.
And in total we have 10 attacking players for 4 positions (Gyokeres, Havertz, Merino, Tzolis, Martinelli, Saka, Madueke, Dowman, Odegaard, Eze). We are fully stocked in attack unless someone leaves.
In midfield we have just 4 players for 4 positions. And two of those are MLS, with a handful of appearance in midfield, and Norgaard. Only Rice and Zubimendi are top top quality. And Rice is potentially looking at a spell on the sidelines.
Moving into defence, we have 7 defenders for 4 positions. But two of those (Saliba and White) will not be fit for the start of the season. That leaves us with just 6 defenders – and a further two in Calafiori and Timber also have their injury problems.
So right now, going into the new season, taking into account the players who are coming out do the World Cup with injures (all named above plus Saka), we have:
9 attackers
3 central midfielders
6 defenders
And maybe this is why we are not prioritising another forward beyond Tzolis? And the focus is on the likes of Bruno and Konsa.
Morgan Rogers, a British transfer for someone who was not in his countries strongest XI, was no longer a priority for Arsenal.
Keenos