David Ornstein shares how close Morgan Rogers actually was to joining Arsenal

Arsenal have had a brilliant summer transfer window, but it has also been a window of near misses.

Indeed, while Arsenal have landed three impressive deals, they have also missed out on a few other star targets.

Vinicius Jr has signed a new Real Madrid contract and will not be headed to the Emirates.

Meanwhile, Julian Alvarez seemingly won’t be headed to Arsenal either as Atletico Madrid continue to play hardball.

Morgan Rogers also joined Chelsea after being strongly linked to Arsenal, and according to David Ornstein, speaking on TNT Sports, Rogers was quite a way along getting his move to Arsenal.

How close Morgan Rogers was to joining Arsenal

According to Ornstein, Rogers to Arsenal was moving along at a decent pace at one point.

Indeed, the journalist says that this deal had gone as far as getting to the point that Mikel Arteta had spoken to the player.

However, those conversations seemingly weren’t enough to get Rogers to come to the Emirates.

“Arsenal wanted him,” Ornstein began.

“How close was that deal?” The host said.

“It wasn’t close to being done, but a huge amount of work had gone into it. Arsenal were in negotiations for him. They wanted to do it, Mikel Arteta had spoken to the player,” Ornstein said.

“It was quite far along, but Chelsea always had an interest in him, they stood back when it looked like it was going to be Arsenal, but the door was never closed. I think Xabi Alonso saw him being a player that fit into his system.”

Arteta usually gets what he wants in the transfer window, especially when he has an open dialogue with a target, but, on this occasion, Rogers joined Chelsea instead.

Whether or not that proves to be a wise decision for Rogers remains to be seen, but, from the outside looking in, it’s hard to see why you would join a team that has just finished ninth ahead of the reigning Premier League champions.