Aston Villa have had to be smart in recent transfer windows. Because they weren’t in the situation with PSR or in football to simply sign the best player in the world.
To build a team capable of challenging the top end of the Premier League under manager Unai Emery, they needed to discover young and underrated talent.
Morgan Rogers is a great example of what they had to do. He was deemed not good enough for Manchester City and was sold to Middlesbrough, before Villa signed him from Boro.
The 23-year-old star has scored double figures in both goals and assists in all competitions for the Villans over the past two seasons, leading to interest from Arsenal.
They have yet to find a young talent as impressive as Jack Grealish, but he grew up at Villa Park as a teenager and was a superstar before his £100m move to Manchester City in 2021.
Aston Villa hold contract talks with Premier League talent
It’s not easy to sign players of Grealish’s caliber, so we were extremely lucky to sign him from the academy, but the club’s Champions League qualification means their chances are even greater.
The club are currently linked with a star signing who could be the biggest talent to join Villa Park since Grealish left almost five years ago.
According to The Athletic, Aston Villa are one of the clubs interested in signing Tottenham Hotspur central midfielder Lukas Bergvall in the summer transfer window.
According to reports, Villa and Chelsea contacted Spurs to discuss a possible move for the Sweden international this year, but were told at the time that he was not for sale.
Now, The Athletic reports that the midfielder has told the Lilywhites that he would like to consider a move away from the club this summer, opening the door for an exit from north London.
TalkSPORT corroborated this claim with its own report, which said Villa, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest were all pursuing a deal for the Swedish youngster, who was advertised for a price of £50 million in April.
Aston Villa’s biggest talent since Jack Grealish
If they can beat Chelsea and Forest to sign Bergvall in the coming weeks, the Villans could sign their biggest talent, as they already have Grealish.
Rodgers is the biggest talent in the current squad given his links with Arsenal, but the Swedish international has had far more success in his career than the English playmaker of the same age.
Until the age of 21, Rodgers had never played a Premier League game or been capped for England, having only played on loan in League One and the Championship.
before turning 21 years old | rogers | mountain wall |
|---|---|---|
Premier League matches played | 0 | 50 |
Premier League assists | 0 | 4 |
Performing in Europe | 0 | twenty one |
senior international cap | 0 | 12 |
World cup participation | 0 | 2 |
Main trophies | 0 | 1 |
Bergvall, meanwhile, has already made 50 Premier League appearances for Spurs, and the fact that he won’t be 21 until February next year speaks to how impressive his career has already been.
The talented 20-year-old also won the Europa League with Spurs in 2024, making him four years younger than Rodgers, who won it with Villa this year.
Bergvall, who has scored one Premier League goal in his career, has shown incredible potential by playing at a high level at such a young age and has been compared to some of football’s legends.
The Athletic’s JJ Bull claims the Swedish star has a “(Luka) Modric-like first touch” for former Spurs star and one-time Ballon d’Or winner, which speaks to the quality he has already shown in the Premier League.
Potential is not always fulfilled, but as Grealish has seen since his departure from Villa, signing Bergvall would be a statement of intent and an indication that the Villans can attract top-level young players to the club now that they can offer Champions League football.
Villa haven’t had such an exciting talent since Grealish came through the academy. That’s why we have to fight hard to win the race for Bergvall this summer.
Aston Villa begin contract talks with Premier League star Morgan Rodgers
Aston Villa are reportedly interested in signing a forward such as Morgan Rodgers to replace Unai Emery.

