West Ham United make approach to hijack £12.5m Aston Villa transfer
West Ham made a big to hijack the transfer of Morgan Rogers to Aston Villa, according to the Sunday People.
The newspaper posted in its print edition (28 January, page 63) that the 21-year-old forward is now clear to make the move to Villa Park in a £12.5million deal.
Rogers only joined Championship outfit Boro from Manchester City in July for a fee of around £1million but a sell-on clause inserted into that move is what has made negotiations tough for Villa, according to the People.
West Ham are said to have now withdrawn their interest with Rogers keen to move back to the West Midlands, having come through the youth ranks at West Brom.
Good business
This January window has been a particularly tough one for Premier League clubs, who are approaching their spending with extreme caution having seen what happened to Everton when they were judged to have breached Profit and Sustainability rules.
But there is an opportunity here for Villa to invest in a player for a relatively modest fee in today’s world and either sign a player who could turn into a first-regular for the forseeable future or who could turn a profit in years to come.
It is also refreshing from a Villa standpoint that Rogers, who has seven goals in all competitions for Boro this term including five in their run to the Carabao Cup semi-finals, wants to join the club and has seemingly rejected the overtures of West Ham.
For Unai Emery, it offers a bit more competition in the forward areas for the likes of Ollie Watkins, Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey at a time when they are pushing for a famous Premier League title tilt.
In other Aston Villa news, Mauricio Pochettino was blown away by what Emiliano Martinez did versus Chelsea.
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