Is Arsenal Repeating Its Eze Blunder with Morgan Rogers?

Arsenal are circling Morgan Rogers. The Aston Villa playmaker is undoubtedly a superb footballer. But that's not quite the full picture here.

Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano has pegged Rogers as Arsenal's top priority – the "number one, two and three target" in his words – while fellow expert Ben Jacobs reports the player is Arsenal's leading option and that Rogers himself fancies the move. Should the Gunners and Villa agree a fee somewhere in the £80m-£100m bracket, Rogers will be donning red and white next term, barring any last-minute intervention from a heavyweight club.

The intrigue lies in how Arsenal plan to deploy him. Reports acknowledge his credentials as a dynamic, forward-thinking talent seemingly engineered for contemporary Premier League demands. Yet when they venture into specifics about his role under Mikel Arteta, the narrative becomes murkier.

At Villa, Rogers has predominantly operated as a second striker or attacking midfielder – a distinction that's more aesthetic than functional. His partnership with Ollie Watkins has made him one of the Premier League's few genuine second strikers. Pairing him with Viktor Gyokeres might work theoretically, but it doesn't align with Kai Havertz's presence and would leave Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze fighting for scraps.

The articles speculating on Rogers' Arsenal lineup slot are attempting to convince everyone – including their authors – that he'll operate on the left wing. The reasoning follows a familiar pattern: Odegaard and Eze will contest the advanced midfield position; Eze can play wide but Arsenal's summer mission is recruiting a specialist winger, which will restrict his flank opportunities; Rogers can occupy the left-wing berth but drift infield to orchestrate play with Odegaard or Eze.

Here's the problem: this exact logic surrounded Eze's arrival twelve months ago.

Last summer, Arsenal's stated objective was acquiring a left-sided winger. Instead, they signed right-winger Noni Madueke and playmaker Eze. Arteta attempted forcing Eze into a left-wing role, discovered it wasn't working, then reverted to rotating Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli on that flank while either Saka or Madueke occupied the right. The team became tactically lopsided.

Rogers gliding inside and dispatching shots into the corner sounds appealing – but so did that Eze scenario before reality intervened.

Arsenal have supposedly wrapped up a deal with Leicester for Jeremy Monga, a left-winger, though his tender age of 16 means meaningful minutes won't materialise this season. PSG's Bradley Barcola represents another option and would provide a straightforward solution to their width problem.

Rogers isn't that solution. He's an exceptional talent, the sort of player Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta believe they cannot overlook. Yet identical sentiments surrounded Eze less than a year back, and his debut campaign at the Emirates saw him wrestling with an identity crisis.

Exceptional footballers don't automatically translate into exceptional signings. Everything hinges on whether the acquisition addresses genuine squad requirements. Arsenal require a left winger. Assuming Rogers fills that void risks becoming another Arteta-Berta miscalculation – a carbon copy of their Eze misstep from last summer.