Aston Villa have reportedly reached a verbal agreement with Middlesbrough to secure the signing of talented youngster Morgan Rogers.
The 21-year-old has scored seven goals and provided nine assists in 33 appearances so far this season, and has seemingly caught the attention of our recruitment team and Unai Emery.
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Villa were able to have a closer look at the versatile forward earlier this month in our FA Cup tie at the Riverside Stadium, and it’s reported that it won’t be long before he’s wearing a Villa shirt and working alongside Emery and the squad.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa have a verbal agreement with Middlesbrough, and having accepted our proposal, Rogers has left their training ground and is travelling to undergo his medical in the next 24 hours.
That in turn suggests that we should be in a position to confirm his signing imminently, and it will be an important addition to the Villa squad, both in the short-term and long-term future.
With Jhon Duran currently sidelined by a hamstring injury that could rule him out for two months, Emery is short on competition and depth behind Ollie Watkins up front, and along with the likes of Nicolo Zaniolo, Rogers will be an option to lead the line given his versatility to play right across the attack.
Further, given he’s still only 21 years of age and although he’s already shown real quality and talent, there is a lot of potential to unlock, and given our pursuit of him this month, it’s clear that Emery sees something in him and is eager to work with him to help us continue to make progress.
It will be fascinating to see his evolution under the Spanish tactician given how we’ve seen him improve so many of the current Villa players, and it’s hoped it won’t be too long before we get an official statement from the club to confirm the swoop and Rogers is able to join his new teammates in training.
As per the Telegraph’s John Percy on Monday, we had a third offer rejected by Boro as talks continued, but he has since reported that the agreement is an initial £10m fee, with a further £5m in add-ons included in the deal.
As noted above, Villa and Emery were evidently very keen to get this transfer secured, and so there is excitement and optimism over the role that Rogers will hopefully play for us moving forward to help us take the next step.
