Chelsea are finalising a £117m deal with Aston Villa to sign Morgan Rogers this summer.
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Ben Jacobs confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that Arsenal were only prepared to commit up to £80m to the transfer.
The Gunners have since reportedly turned their attentions to Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, and it raises further questions over their ability to sign Bradley Barcola.
If £80m is Arsenal’s ceiling, they can’t afford Bradley Barcola
By Rogers’ own admission, the obscene price tags that have been floated around his name have seemed a little over the top.
Morgan Rogers formalised his Chelsea contract on Monday. 6+1 deal. £117m. Chelsea able to agree a deal with Aston Villa in 48 hours.🔵
Arsenal were only prepared to go to £80m and are now exploring other attacking targets. #AFC set to be busy in the next weeks. Another bid for… pic.twitter.com/Pj7Q1X9LT9
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) July 21, 2026
So we absolutely don’t blame the Gunners for not wanting to go above a perfectly reasonable £80m for the England international.
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However, assuming that PSG intend to stay firm to their own reported valuation of Barcola – the floor of which is thought to be around £112m – we wonder whether Arsenal’s alleged pivot to Williams is out of financial necessity.
Of course, it’s also equally plausible that Mikel Arteta’s men may have simply valued Morgan Rogers at the stated figure. Their own internal assessment of the France international’s value may be somewhat different.
Liverpool can’t skimp out on a new winger
Liverpool, meanwhile, aren’t in a position to haggle around the £80m mark. Quite frankly, we just don’t buy that £85m (a reported opening offer from the Reds) will be enough to seal the deal for the PSG wide man.
READ MORE: Liverpool prepping ‘imminent’ £85m bid for Bradley Barcola as club-to-club talks escalate – report
Regardless, desperate times call for desperate measures. Mo Salah’s departure means we simply don’t have the appropriate firepower available ahead of the new campaign.
Federico Chiesa is an option on the right, but ultimately wasn’t trusted to do a job for large swathes of the 2025/26 campaign. Even should Andoni Iraola hold a different opinion to his predecessor on the matter, the Italian isn’t of a comparable quality to our Egyptian King.
Liverpool need quality. Ideally, they need an elite option they can count on the right flank – and that’s looking like Barcola after our failed push for Yan Diomande.
Nico Williams is a better fit than Barcola, he has more urgency to catch defenders turned and presses high for the goal line. For that price you could snatch Williams and Kone at once…
I agree I think Nico is much better and cheaper we can even go foe Alex Scott cuz I think since he refused to sign the price will come down
Well, The World Cup was good.
Rabiot and players like that did welll but France had to push too much up the field and there was Kinate in defence and not John Terry.
VVD wants to go forward and now David Luiz is in the mix because whats a CB and if the other CB aint as good as the captain playing CB then the captain playing CB has to see that and keep the defence tight especially if the RB is gone too far forward and has to run back too much because the LB has also gone forward and so there is a spot in the team for a RM and a LM and a holding midfielder to replace Gerrard or Fabinho.
Cant have the line in midfield gone and there be no defence and stuff.
Thats how the team loses the Leage from day 1.
-Andrre
10:45 AM
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 (EDT)
Time in Baltimore, MD