Weeks do not come bigger than this if you are an Arsenal player or supporter. After the Premier League title was held aloft at Selhurst Park last weekend, the Gunners now travel to Budapest where they will go in search of winning their first Champions League trophy.
It has been 20 years since the Londoners jousted Barcelona in the 2006 final, losing that one after Jens Lehmann’s disastrous red card in the first half of the game.
Well, two decades on, it’s a chance to write those wrongs, it’s an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of fellow English sides Aston Villa and Crystal Palace who have already won UEFA’s two other continental titles; the Europa League and Conference League.
Speaking of Villa, a certain Morgan Rogers will no doubt be watching the final on Saturday was a vested interest. He is a player Arsenal reportedly want to bring to the Emirates Stadium this summer.
Arsenal want to sign £100m star alongside Morgan Rogers
One of Arsenal’s key targets for the summer window appears to be that man Rogers.
Reports this week have not only suggested that initial talks have been held between Arsenal and the play’s camp but that Andrea Berta has made it his ‘personal mission’ to bring the Englishman to the Premier League champions.
Rogers is not hankering over a move away from Villa after they secured Champions League football but he would surely find it difficult to turn down a team seemingly now at the prime years of their project.
That said, the attacker has been valued at north of £80m, potentially even £100m. It would be a huge deal for the Gunners to try and get over the line.
He is not the only mega-money Arsenal are interested in signing this summer. Indeed, Sky Sports report this week that Arsenal ‘want’ to sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest.
They are joined in the battle for the midfielder’s services by Manchester United and Manchester City. Sadly, this one does feel unlikely due to the amount of groundwork City have already carried out on the deal.
The Citizens are the current favourites to extract him out of Forest and could pay a mighty £100m fee to do so. Previous reports this week suggest that the FA Cup winners have already agreed personal terms with the player.
Why Anderson would be a better signing than Rogers for Arsenal
Let’s set things straight, if Arsenal could sign both Rogers and Anderson they’d become even bigger favourites to secure the title next season.
Why? Well, they are easily two of, if not the two best players currently plying their trade for Premier League teams outside of the classic top six.
In Rogers, the Gunners would be securing a former PFA Young Player of the Year winner, someone who has scored 14 goals in back to back campaigns. He’s a versatile threat who can play as a no.10 or out on the wing. That said, in Arsenal’s pursuit of strengthening their forward line, they surely need a more out and out winger to solve their issues.
Both Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard struggled for large parts of the campaign with the former scoring just one league goal and the latter going goalless in 25 matches before netting against West Ham.
Rogers would solve the goals but he’s more of a central player, someone in a similar mould to Eberechi Eze. As a result, fixing their midfield issues with Anderson would undoubtedly be the better move here if they could hijack City’s talks.
The two biggest issues that Mikel Arteta needs to address this summer are on the left flank and in midfield where Anderson would surely walk into the starting XI.
Arsenal signed Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad last summer and while he did star immediately, notably scoring twice against Anderson’s Forest side at the Emirates, he’s now fallen out of favour in the final stretch of the season despite playing the second highest number of minutes (4,269) of any outfield player behind Declan Rice at the club.
A summer break would have done the Spaniard a world of good but he is set to play a major part for his nation at this summer’s World Cup. More football is not what Zubimendi needs considering how tired he looks.
Benched for Myles Lewis-Skelly in recent weeks, the teenager has delivered a firm reminder of why he’s one of the best young players in Europe. He’s primed to start the Champions League final and that would be fine reward for his strong end fo the campaign.