Ian Wright ‘Gutted’ as Arsenal Misses Out on Morgan Rogers to Chelsea
Arsenal’s summer window was supposed to be about fine-tuning a title-chasing squad. Instead, for Ian Wright, it ended with a familiar feeling: the missing forward.
The club legend admitted he was “gutted” that Arsenal allowed Morgan Rogers to slip through their fingers and join Chelsea in a £117m deal, after appearing to lead the race for weeks.
Arsenal had moved early for Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge and then set about hunting one more major attacking weapon. The brief was clear: a left-sided difference-maker to turn tight games and give Mikel Arteta another edge in the title fight.
Names came and went. Morgan Rogers. Vinicius Junior. Julian Alvarez. All high on Arsenal’s list. None of them walked through the doors at London Colney.
Arteta’s squad did still get heavier at the top end. Bruno Guimaraes arrived to add control and bite in midfield, Ezri Konsa to deepen the defensive options. On paper, it was a strong window. For Wright, it was also an incomplete one.
Speaking on The Overlap, he didn’t hide his frustration.
“It’s not a disastrous window,” he 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.”
That Paris reference cuts to the heart of it. On the biggest nights, Arsenal still feel one attacker short. Someone who can rip open a low block, drag a game away from an opponent in a single movement.
Wright believes that gap now lives on the left.
Arsenal’s title plans are clear enough. They expect to be in the fight again. Bukayo Saka is back. Martin Odegaard is back. Kai Havertz is back and thriving in the system. The core is strong, the patterns familiar. Yet for Wright, the window leaves a nagging question.
“You say we have got those types of players but that is what Mikel wanted,” he added. “It is a position where we need that player. Of course Saka is back, Odegaard is back, Havertz is back and playing together, but he wanted that difference-maker.
“He [Rogers] is the one we were linked with ages ago and he would have loved to have come, I can feel it.”
The twist, in Wright’s eyes, came from Arsenal’s pursuit of Vinicius Junior. When a club visibly chases a superstar to the “end of the earth”, as he put it, everyone else in that position starts to look like a Plan B. Or worse, an afterthought.
“There’s something that’s happened with Arsenal with the way they were going for Vini,” Wright said. “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.”
Chelsea saw the hesitation and pounced. They paid the fee, took the risk and handed Arsenal a problem they may have to stare at all season: their would-be winger now lines up in blue, not red.
The timing adds an extra edge. Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge next in the Premier League, walking straight into a meeting with the club that took the forward their manager craved.
Peter Crouch expects that to matter less than current form. He’s backing Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea to make a statement.
“Great game! Two teams looking good as well,” Crouch 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 he’s right, and if Rogers plays any part in that storyline, Arsenal’s regret over this window won’t just be Wright’s. It will be written across the league table.
