Aston Villa may want as much as £130m for Morgan Rogers this summer, according to new reports on Arsenal’s transfer pursuit.
James McNicholas reports for The Athletic that Arsenal’s move for Morgan Rogers is being complicated by the fact Aston Villa intend to use Manchester City’s £116m deal for Elliot Anderson as a benchmark.
It’s unclear what exactly the two transfers have to do with each other, given the two players are extremely dissimilar. But that’s the argument Villa plan to make.
Matt Law confirms for The Telegraph that Villa don’t want to sell Rogers, and that they believe he’s worth more than Anderson.
Law adds that Villa believe the current market dictates that Rogers should be worth £130m, more than the British transfer record. This valuation reportedly factors in that Middlesbrough have a sell-on clause for the forward.
The report goes on to say that it remains to be seen whether the interested clubs would be willing to meet Villa’s valuation, and whether it might be possible to negotiate a lower fee.
The reality is that such an inflated valuation might push Arsenal to pull out of the move altogether, and perhaps that’s what Villa really want. They know the player wants to join Arsenal, and this way they can say it was Arsenal’s fault the move didn’t happen, because they didn’t pay up.
Rogers scored 14 goals and assisted another 12 this season, and he’s playing for England at the World Cup. Those are good numbers, but they aren’t £130m-signing numbers.
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