Chelsea Hijack Arsenal Again With Record £117M Morgan Rogers Deal
Arsenal will now move on to other targets after their city rivals snatched Rogers from under their noses.
Chelsea have beaten Arsenal to the finish line for Morgan Rogers, agreeing a club-record £117 million deal for the Aston Villa attacker. Photo: Courtesy.
By Robert Mutasi
Chelsea have beaten Arsenal to the finish line for Morgan Rogers, agreeing a club-record £117 million deal for the Aston Villa attacker, and this is not the first time the Blues have raced the Gunners for a signing and won.
Rogers is set to sign a six-year deal at Stamford Bridge and is preparing to undergo a medical today, Monday, July 20, 2026. The 23-year-old just returned from a third-place win at the World Cup at the weekend, helping England defeat France 6-4 to earn their best position at the major tournament since their 1966 win.
Rogers will become the most expensive signing in Chelsea’s history, surpassing the £107 million spent on Enzo Fernandez in 2023. The deal is also worth £1 million more than the previous British record £116 million Manchester City agreed to pay for Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson earlier this summer. Arsenal will now move on to other targets after their city rivals snatched Rogers from under their noses.
This is not the first time a transfer hijack has happened between the two London clubs. Here are some of the biggest deals Arsenal missed out on to Chelsea.
1. Mykhailo Mudryk – 2023
The most recent hijack prior to Rogers was Mykhailo Mudryk, who joined the Blues for an initial £61 million fee in 2023. Arsenal had been leading the way in negotiations. They were set to make the Shakhtar Donetsk winger their club-record signing. Mudryk was understood to be keen to move to north London and then-Gunner Oleksandr Zinchenko even got involved in contacting his Ukraine international team-mate “almost every day, every two days, every three days.”
Shakhtar valued the pacey winger at around £85 million, but Arsenal were confident they could lower the price due to the player’s willingness to depart. A fee of £61 million was floated but the Ukrainian side rejected it – and this is where Chelsea stepped in. Things moved quickly as Chelsea were more willing to include add-ons. An initial fee of £61 million was agreed, with up to £26.5 million in additional bonuses, showing they moved faster than their rivals.
2. Raphinha – 2022
Chelsea almost beat Arsenal just months before they snatched Mudryk. Raphinha had captured the attention of Mikel Arteta thanks to a super season with Leeds United. The Gunners were closing in on the forward until Todd Boehly appeared with a bigger offer. It was looking likely that the Blues were set to best their rivals – but then Barcelona came knocking. The Brazil international ended the fighting between Chelsea and Arsenal for his signature by opting to head to Spain to join the La Liga giants for a £55 million fee. He has since become a global star with Barca, earning a Ballon d’Or nomination last year.
3. Eden Hazard – 2012
Arguably one of Chelsea’s best players of modern times, Eden Hazard joined the Blues in 2012. The Belgium international joined from Lille for a fee of £32 million and became a hero at Stamford Bridge. Across 352 appearances, Hazard scored 110 goals and assisted 88 times. He came back to haunt the Gunners by making three goal contributions in their 4-1 thrashing of Arsenal in the 2019 Europa League final. Hazard had been strongly linked with a move to north London but Chelsea ultimately won the battle. At the time, Arsene Wenger claimed he had “no big regrets” because there was too much money involved and Arsenal could not afford it.
4. Petr Cech – 2004
Another star that became a hero for the Blues was goalkeeper Petr Cech. He joined from Rennes in 2004 for just £7 million and is regarded as one of the club’s greatest signings, keeping a record 21 clean sheets in his debut Premier League season. However, the goalkeeper almost decided to head to Arsenal in 2003, but a struggle to sort out work permits put a stop to the move. Cech later said there was a chance before he went to France that he could sign for Arsenal but he was only 18 or 19 and Czech Republic were not in the EU, so he could not get a work permit.
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