Morgan Rodgers transfer news: Chelsea agree record £117m deal for Aston Villa forward and Arsenal’s No.1 target | football news

Chelsea have agreed a record £117m deal with Aston Villa for Morgan Rodgers.

He is due to move to Chelsea later Arsenal make Rodgers their top forward target this summer – and the Gunners’ approach to Villa was expected after the World Cup ended.

However, Arsenal were unwilling to go for that price and Rodgers is set to join Chelsea – forgoing Champions League football with either Villa or Arsenal next season to play for a club outside of European football.

Rodgers is expected to sign a six-year deal at Chelsea with the option of a further year. He will undergo treatment on Monday after returning from America following England’s World Cup campaign.

Rodgers will become the most expensive British player – after the record was already broken when Man City paid £116m for his England team-mate Elliott Anderson this summer.

He is also set to become Chelsea’s record signing, surpassing the £115m Brighton paid the Blues for Moises Caicedo in 2023.

The 23-year-old scored 14 goals and added 11 assists in 55 games for Villa last season.

Since joining from Middlesbrough in 2024 in a deal worth £16m, Rodgers has quickly gone from young prospect to fully-fledged England international, already with 21 caps to his name.

He made five of those appearances during the 2026 World Cup and provided an assist for Anthony Gordon in England’s semi-final defeat to Argentina.

Middlesbrough Rodgers stood to earn a further £20.3m as part of the sale spree when he was sold to Aston Villa. In January 2024.

Boro sold Rodgers for £15.5m and agreed a clause for 20 per cent of Villa’s future profits on the winger’s sale.

This means Boro made a total of £35.8m on the sale of Rogers – of which £34.7m was a profit. He cost £1.1m to sign from Boro Man City in July 2023 and only played for them for six months.

Another example of Boro recruiting over the past few years while maintaining a promotion challenge.

‘Chelsea’s real statement of intent – they don’t just want to be Rance’

Sky Sports News Chief Correspondent Kaveh Solhekol:

Rodgers is out in the States with the England squad here but will have his medical with Chelsea in London on Monday as England return to the UK and will sign a contract that is likely to be seven years long. It will be six years and one more year option. It’s pretty standard for Chelsea.

He is still only 23 and was the Europa League Player of the Year last season as Villa won the Europa League. This is a big transfer coup for Chelsea as many people thought it could be a quiet transfer window for Chelsea.

This is a real statement of intent from Chelsea as paying that kind of money for a player as good as Rodgers really shows that Chelsea still mean business.

Villa were under no pressure to sell him. He had a contract which he extended until 2031. And if he had stayed at Villa, surely he could have played in the Champions League next season.

Historically, Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in English football, but last time they had a very poor season by their standards. They’ve got a new manager in Xabi Alonso. I think it shows you that when Alonso took the Chelsea job, some eyebrows were raised. And you have to assume he was assured he would be backed in the transfer market.

Chelsea is still a very big club, and they are still a very ambitious club. So I think it’s a real statement of intent from Chelsea. They just don’t want to be Rance.

So as long as he passes his medical on Monday, he will be a Chelsea player early next week.

Villa’s nightmare summer window: ‘gut punch, gut punch after gut punch’

Lewis Jones of Sky Sports:

Aston Villa should have attacked from a position of strength this summer. Finished fourth in Champions League football. European silverware in the cabinet. Unai Emery is a manager who has every reason to believe that the foundations have been laid for Villa to eventually become a genuine top-four regular.

Instead, the initial movement in this window is headed for nightmare territory.

Youri Tielemans, Emery’s midfield metronome and the team’s most influential player over the last 18 months, is on his way to Manchester United. Paris Saint-Germain are expected to activate Lucas Digne’s release clause after the World Cup, robbing Villa of one of the Premier League’s most reliable attacking full-backs.

And now comes the biggest gut punch of them all. Rodgers, Villa’s standout performer and the face of the club’s exciting future, is on the verge of joining Chelsea in what would be a record sale.

You are watching a squad being disbanded. What is Emery thinking?

His message was clear after lifting the Europa League trophy. This was not the end point. The villa had to be built from here. The pace had to be maintained. Instead, the project seems to be going backwards.

Johan Manzambi is expected to arrive and there is plenty to like about his potential, but potential does not replace proven Premier League quality overnight.

Emery has built a reputation for solving problems that others cannot. But even the best managers need stability. He is looking at the possibility of rebuilding the backbone of his team while competing on multiple fronts.

He has performed miracles before. He still has to produce his best.

£300m signing of former Man City youth players by Chelsea

Rodgers will become the seventh former Man City youth player to sign since taking over at Chelsea.

The man responsible for all these ex-City player signings is Chelsea’s co-director of recruitment and talent Joe Shields.

Shields served as Man City’s head of academy recruitment and talent management, while former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, who headed City’s elite development squad coach, was originally in charge of the club’s under-21 side.

Morgan Rogers – Summer of 2026* – £117m

Jamie Gittens – Summer 2025, £51.5m

Liam Delap – Summer 2025, £30m

Jadon Sancho – Summer of 2024, loan

Tosin Adarbioo – Summer of 2024, free

Romeo Lavia – Summer 2023, £58m

Cole Palmer – Summer 2023, £40m

*Still to be completed

Total cost: £296.5m