Wright ‘gutted’ Arsenal didn’t seal deal for Chelsea star with Arteta ‘not happy’

Arsenal legend Ian Wright insists that he was “gutted” that the Gunners missed out on Morgan Rogers to Chelsea in the summer.

The North Londoners were searching for another attacking talent to bring to the club over the summer transfer window after securing an early deal for Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge.

Several potential opportunities came and passed them by with Morgan Rogers, Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez all among Arsenal‘s top targets.

Mikel Arteta’s outfit still brought in players like Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa to level up their squad but Wright was “gutted” when Rogers joined Chelsea in a deal worth £117m after Arsenal looked like leading the race for weeks.

Wright said on The Overlap: “It’s not a disastrous window 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.”

Arsenal are planning for another title tilt and Wright reckons their failure to bring in a top attacking player on the left could come back to haunt them.

Wright added: “You say we have got those types of players but that is what Mikel wanted. 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.

“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 face Chelsea next up in the Premier League over the weekend and Peter Crouch is predicting a win for Xabi Alonso’s side.

Crouch said: “Great game! Two teams looking good as well. 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.”