Right. Four clubs. Four massive clubs, apparently, all want Morgan Rogers. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool. The whole lot of them. Circling round Aston Villa like seagulls round a chip wrapper in Blackpool.

Don't get me started.

The lad's 22 years old. He's had a cracking season. Proper footballer. Gets on the ball, drives at people, creates chances. The sort of midfielder you'd have built a team around in my day. And what happens? Before he's even finished the job at Villa Park, half the league's got their chequebooks out trying to nick him.

That's the problem with modern football. You can't develop a player anymore. You can't build something. The second a young lad shows a bit of quality, the vultures arrive. It used to be that a club could nurture talent, bring a player through, let him become part of something special. Now? You're basically running a shop window. You're a showroom. You spend millions finding these kids, coaching them up, getting them right, and then some super club rolls up and waves a number at your board that makes their eyes go funny.

And the worst part? Villa aren't even a small club. This isn't Wigan or Tranmere getting raided. This is Aston Villa. Champions League football. Unai Emery has done an absolutely magnificent job there. They've been genuine contenders. And still. STILL. They can't hold onto their best players because the big four come knocking and suddenly everyone loses their heads.

In my day, a player stayed at a club because he had loyalty. Because the fans sang his name and he felt something. I managed lads in League Two who turned down moves because they loved the town. Loved the ground. Loved the woman who ran the tea bar on a Tuesday night. Try explaining that to a 22 year old's agent in 2026. You'd get laughed out of the building.

And look at who's in for him. Manchester United. Can't decide what they are from one week to the next. Chelsea. Got more midfielders than I've had hot dinners and they still want another one. Arsenal. Fair enough, they're building something, but they've got about fourteen players in that position already. And Liverpool. Who are apparently letting Mo Salah walk out the door but want to replace him with a midfielder from Villa. Make it make sense.

None of it makes sense. That's the point. The transfer market isn't about football anymore. It's about assets and leverage and portfolio building and all that nonsense. It's spreadsheets. It's algorithms. Some 26 year old data analyst in a London office has decided Morgan Rogers fits their model and now Villa have to fend off four bids in the summer.

Poor Emery. Imagine being him. You go into that training ground every morning knowing that half your squad is being linked with a move before lunch. How do you plan? How do you build? You can't. You just patch and repair and hope the next kid coming through is as good as the one you're about to lose.

I'll tell you what I'd do if I was in charge at Villa. I'd slap a billion pound release clause on every single player. Every one of them. The kit man. The groundsman. The lot. You want Morgan Rogers? Fine. That'll be a billion quid. Cash. No instalments. No add ons. No clever accounting.

Won't happen though, will it? He'll be gone by August. Playing in a squad rotation at one of the big clubs. Coming off the bench in the 73rd minute instead of being the main man at Villa Park.

And then in three years, everyone will wonder why the league's got no competition anymore.

Don't get me started.