Are Arsenal making the same Eberechi Eze mistake with Morgan Rogers? | OneFootball

Arsenal are making their move for Morgan Rogers. Why? Because he’s a very fine footballer. But also, why?

Fabrizio Romano has confirmed the Aston Villa star as Arsenal’s ‘number one, two and three target’, while fellow transfer expert Ben Jacobs confirmed that he is there ‘leading target, and the player keen on the move’.

If the Gunners agree the fee with Villa – thought to be somewhere between £80m and £100m – Rogers will be an Arsenal player next season unless a bigger fish nibbles, and there aren’t too many of those around these days.

We’re intrigued by reports detailing Arsenal’s interest. They first highlight his enviable qualities as a powerful, game-changing forward who looks as though he was made in a lab in preparation for modern Premier League football. But They then attempt to explain how he might fit into Mikel Arteta’s team.

He’s played the vast majority of his games for Villa as a second striker or attacking midfielder, with the distinction between the two more vibes-based than anything. We would argue his proximity to Ollie Watkins makes him one of very few genuine second strikers.

He could strike up a similar partnership with Viktor Gyokeres, but that’s not going to work with Kai Havertz, and would also mean no place in the starting XI for either Martin Odegaard or Eberechi Eze.

Journalists putting together ‘how Arsenal could line up with Rogers’ articles are trying to convince us, and themselves, that Rogers is being signed to play on the left. The Standard’s version is typical.

‘Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze are likely to battle it out to play in the most advanced midfield role.

‘Eze can play on the left but Arsenal’s priority this summer is to sign a new winger and that is likely to limit the minutes he gets out wide.

‘Arsenal are very interested in signing Morgan Rogers and there is a confidence that he would be keen to join if a fee can be agreed with Aston Villa.

‘Rogers could slot in on the left of the front three but with the freedom to roam inside and link up with Odegaard or Eze.’

The priority – certainly one of them – last summer was also to sign a new left winger, and Arsenal ended up with a right-winger in Noni Madueke and a No.10 in Eze, whom Arteta tried to squeeze as a square peg into a round hole on the left, before admitting defeat and rotating him with Odegaard as the Gunners’ playmaker.

Rogers drifting inside and curling shots into the top corner sounds good, but it also sounded good when we all made that assumption about Eze last summer. It didn’t happen and Arteta reverted to either Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli on the left to provide some balance to what had become a very lopsided team with either Bukayo Saka or Madueke hugging the right flank.

Arsenal have also reportedly agreed a deal with Leicester for Jeremy Monga, who plays predominantly on the left wing, but at just 16 he’s not about to be play significant football next season. Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola is also on their radar, and would represent a clear solution.

Rogers just isn’t. He’s a brilliant footballer; someone Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta perhaps feel they can’t afford to miss out on. But the same claim was made about Eze less than a year ago, and he spent most of his first season at the Emirates suffering something approaching an identity crisis.

Brilliant footballers don’t necessarily make brilliant signings – it depends on the need of the football club. Arsenal need a left winger and assuming Rogers can fill that void could prove to be another mistake from Arteta and Berta, after they made the very same mistake with Eze last summer.