Ian Wright ‘Gutted’ as Arsenal Misses Out on Morgan Rogers
Ian Wright has never been shy about what Arsenal need. This time, the club’s former No. 8 cut straight to the point: missing out on Morgan Rogers has left him “gutted”.
Arsenal spent the summer hunting for one more attacking spark. Christos Tzolis arrived early from Club Brugge, a smart, forward-thinking deal that hinted at a decisive window. Behind the scenes, though, the real chase centred on a higher tier of targets.
- Rogers.
- Vinicius Junior.
- Julian Alvarez.
Those were the names at the top of Mikel Arteta’s list as the club looked for a left-sided difference-maker to push them over the line in another title race. Arsenal strengthened elsewhere – Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa came in to raise the level of the squad – but the big attacking signing never landed in north London.
Instead, it went to a rival.
Chelsea stepped in and paid £117m to take Rogers to Stamford Bridge, hijacking a pursuit that, for weeks, looked like Arsenal’s to finish. For Wright, that twist turned a decent window into a frustrating one.
On The Overlap, he didn’t dress it up.
“It’s not a disastrous window,” Wright said. “But if I’m Mikel, I wouldn’t be happy with how this window has gone simply because we’ve gone another window where we have not got that forward.
“Mikel has talked about getting players to take us to that level, he did it again after Paris, where we didn’t have that player to break them. That is the player Mikel wanted. They chased Vini until the end of the earth and left Morgan Rogers dangling.”
The picture is clear: Arsenal wanted a killer from the left. Arteta has spoken often about needing someone to “break” stubborn opponents, the kind of player who can turn a tight Champions League night or a tense title run-in with one flash of quality. In Wright’s eyes, that profile was exactly what Rogers offered.
Arsenal, he argued, may have paid a price for their pursuit of Vinicius Junior.
“He [Rogers] is the one we were linked with ages ago and he would have loved to have come, I can feel it,” Wright said.
“There’s something that’s happened with Arsenal with the way they were going for Vini. If you’re a player and you see a team going for him, you think, ‘I thought they were interested in me?’ It is the player the manager wanted. Chelsea thought, well if you’re not going to pay it, we’ll pay it. I’m gutted, I would have loved him to come.”
Arsenal’s attacking core remains strong on paper. Bukayo Saka is back. Martin Odegaard is back. Kai Havertz is back and thriving in Arteta’s structure. Yet Wright keeps circling back to the same gap on the teamsheet.
“You say we have got those types of players but that is what Mikel wanted. It is a position where we need that player,” he insisted. For a side planning another title tilt, leaving that area unresolved feels like a calculated risk.
The timing of all this only adds spice. Arsenal’s next Premier League assignment? Chelsea.
Rogers, the one that got away, could line up in blue against the club that courted him for weeks. The narrative writes itself: a £117m forward, a manager who wanted him, and a fanbase led by one of its greatest icons still wondering how the deal slipped through their fingers.
Peter Crouch, looking ahead to the weekend, senses a statement coming from Stamford Bridge.
“Great game! Two teams looking good as well,” he said. “I’m going to put the cat amongst the pigeons and I’m going to go for a 3-2 Chelsea win. I think they’ve announced themselves as title contenders.”
If Crouch is right and Chelsea edge a high-scoring thriller, with Rogers involved, the mood around north London will darken quickly. Arsenal have built a squad to go the distance. But in the sharpest moments of the season, will the absence of that left-sided “difference-maker” be the decision that defines it?
