Aston Villa have several players within their squad who are prime examples of why a player should not be written off because they failed to make the grade at a top six side.
Morgan Rogers never made a senior appearance during his time at Manchester City and was sold to Championship side Middlesbrough, before he ended up at Villa Park in January 2024.
Since his move to the club, the England international has racked up 25 goals and 24 assists in 102 appearances in all competitions for Unai Emery, per Transfermarkt, and earned 12 caps for his country.
The 23-year-old star is proof that Villa, or any other club, should not be put off by a failure to make the grade at a club like Manchester City, as they have world-class players in abundance and it is incredibly difficult to make a breakthrough.
Aston Villa eyeing Manchester City star
Villa are already set to sign Tammy Abraham, who previously failed to establish himself at Chelsea, from Besiktas, but they are also looking at another Englishman who has not quite stepped up at the very top level.
According to TEAMtalk, Aston Villa are plotting a move to sign Manchester City goalkeeper James Trafford in the upcoming summer transfer window.
The report claims that current first-choice Emiliano Martinez is ‘likely’ to leave the club at the end of the 2025/26 campaign, which would leave the Villans in need of a new number one goalkeeper.
Trafford, who re-joined City from Burnley last summer, has been shortlisted by Unai Emery’s side as an option to replace Martinez between the sticks, but it will not be an easy deal to do.
TEAMtalk reveals that Manchester City view him as a valuable member of their squad, despite being the back-up to Gianluigi Donnarumma, and that they will not allow him to leave without a fight.
Why Trafford could be a Rogers repeat for Villa
As aforementioned, Rogers has been a sublime player for the Villans in the Premier League and established himself as an England international since City decided to let him go without any senior appearances.
He has shown that the big clubs do make mistakes by not giving young talents more opportunities to play, and Villa could benefit from that once again by signing Trafford, albeit this would be directly from City, whilst Rogers came via Middlesbrough.
In the 2025/26 campaign, the English star has kept four clean sheets in nine matches for City, including one clean sheet in three Premier League games before Donnarumma signed for the Cityzens from PSG to claim the number one shirt.
Trafford, per Sofascore, prevented 1.89 goals in his three Premier League games for City, but that impressive shot-stopping display was not enough to keep Champions League winner Donnarumma out of the side.
The 23-year-old goalkeeper, who was hailed as “incredible” by Pep Guardiola earlier this season, also produced sensational performances in the Championship for Burnley when they won promotion to the Premier League in the 2024/25 campaign.
|
24/25 Championship |
James Trafford |
|---|---|
|
Appearances |
45 |
|
Save percentage |
85% |
|
Goals conceded |
16 |
|
Goals prevented |
+12.82 |
|
Clean sheets |
29 |
|
Error led to goal |
0 |
As you can see in the table above, Trafford kept a staggering 29 clean sheets in 45 league games and prevented almost 13 goals more than expected based on the xG against him.
This means that he has prevented almost 15 more goals than expected in the Premier League and the Championship combined since the start of last term, but he has not had a chance to improve that statistic with more minutes in the top-flight this term.
What these statistics do show is that he has impressed whenever he has played for Burnley or City, but is in an unfortunate situation because he has one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Donnarumma, ahead of him.
Therefore, Trafford has the potential to be a brilliant replacement for Martinez between the sticks for Villa if they can agree a deal to sign him in the summer, as he is a brilliant shot-stopper who is only available because City also decided to sign a world-class goalkeeper.
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This means that Villa could once again benefit from City not backing one of their young players, as they did not with Rogers, by swooping to sign the goalkeeper to be their new number one for next season and beyond.
