Rogers admits Arsenal admiration as Barcelona plot Hincapie bid this summer

Arsenal face a busy summer transfer window regardless of the outcome of Wednesday’s Champions League final against PSG in Budapest, with the club targeting Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers and already bracing for interest in defender Piero Hincapie from Barcelona.

The Gunners are understood to be stepping up their pursuit of Rogers, with manager Mikel Arteta keen to bring the Villa midfielder to the Emirates. Aston Villa are expected to demand at least £80 million for one of their standout performers this season, but comments Rogers made to The Athletic appear to signal some openness to a move.

“Probably the Arsenal game at the start of last season was the big one for me,” Rogers said, reflecting on the moment he felt established in the Premier League. “I was playing against some of the best players in the world and Arsenal were competing for the title. They were players I watched on television when I was in the Championship or in League One.”

Rogers added that the contest gave him the confidence he needed to believe he could compete at the highest level. “Being able to match them toe-to-toe, physically, with and without the ball, I just got that feeling, ‘Yeah, I can do this,’” he said. “That was the game where I felt like I deserved to be here.”

On the other side of Arsenal’s transfer equation, Barcelona are reportedly weighing up an approach for Hincapie, according to the Daily Mail. The Ecuadorian centre-back only recently became a permanent Arsenal player after the club activated a £45 million option to buy in his loan deal from Bayer Leverkusen, with a five-year contract agreed in north London.

Barcelona sporting director Deco is said to acknowledge the difficulty of prising Hincapie away so soon after his permanent move, but the Catalan club are in the market for a left-sided centre-back. They have already spent heavily this summer, completing the £69 million signing of Anthony Gordon.

Arsenal’s hierarchy will be looking to balance any significant incomings with corresponding sales, meaning Hincapie’s future could depend in part on how aggressively the club pursues targets like Rogers. The summer window is shaping up to be one of the most consequential in recent years at the Emirates, with or without European silverware to accompany it.