Sources: Morgan Rogers set to join Chelsea for £117m!!
The full details in here
Chelsea made a breakthrough in their attempts to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa yesterday afternoon, with David Ornstein dropping the exclusive of a £117m fee being agreed between the two clubs.
SPTC Sources had always maintained that Rogers was Chelsea’s key number one target for the attacking role this summer, and that the player had not rejected a move to Chelsea.
However, we had all but ruled it out still, because until over the weekend, Chelsea were showing no signs of wanting to pay the high asking price, which many will deem too much for Rogers (we can debate that in another article today). However, that changed, and Chelsea decided to pay up after Xabi Alonso got involved to help fully convince the player to pick Chelsea over Arsenal. And this was the biggest task that needed to be done, because Rogers was set on Arsenal at one point.
However, as our sources also pointed out a few weeks back, Chelsea sensed a chance to get in on Rogers over Arsenal, because the latter were dithering around with the Rogers deal and also looking into other targets. This frustrated Rogers, who was always open to either Arsenal or Chelsea.
No Champions League football also had Rogers doubting a move to Stamford Bridge though, so Alonso getting involved and helping to convince the player, was an absolutely huge factor in this deal.
Rogers was a Chelsea target before Alonso even got here, so it’s not a player he has hand-picked himself and asked Chelsea to go and get. However, Alonso very much got on board with signing Rogers when the board put the name to him, and he said he wanted Rogers at Chelsea. So that is another reason why the club have put down such a big fee on signing him.
The medical is now set for Monday.
Another thing that helped convince the player to join was being able to play alongside Cole Palmer, and Rogers also really rates and likes Joao Pedro. Rogers is said to be excited to work with the top attackers at Chelsea, with the likes of Estevao Willian also being mentioned.
Our sources also understand that Chelsea players were mentioned by Villa in Rogers talks. Alejandro Garnacho and Nicolas Jackson (as we exclusively revealed last week) have interest from Villa. Sources believe there could be a Chelsea player moving to Villa a bit later in the window, for a fee that some might see as inflated. So it could end up being an unofficial part of the Rogers deal, a lot like Chelsea and Villa did before with Ian Maatsen and Omari Kellyman.
Rogers was always Chelsea’s top target, I just didn’t believe it would get done due to his high price tag, and Chelsea also seriously looking into alternative targets instead.
It makes you wonder about who Chelsea will have to sell now, and whether they have any more big deals in them. But sources believe that for this deal to get to where it’s at, then Chelsea will have many outgoings closer than what has been reported, and along the line. It’s also refreshing to see both the Palestra deal and the Rogers deal coming from nowhere really and being pretty unexpected - Chelsea working in silence - which most fans appreciate.
One other thing that we reported on here some time back now, is that Chelsea had been looking for more height and physicality to add to the squad. Alonso also wants players with strong mentalities. Rogers ticks ticks all of those boxes as well as the Premier League proven desire. And even our first summer signing Marco Palestra ticks the physicality, mentality, and height boxes. These are key elements that Alonso and the club wanted to add to the squad.
As reported here many times, Chelsea have never been ‘broke’ like some have claimed. They’ve had to be careful with the financial rules and they do need to now make some sales, as they always planned to anyway. But they were always planning to spend this summer too, as evidenced already.
Simon Phillips
Please Villa - take Garnacho. Free to good home.
The reality is all of us have to just park the transfer fee. It’s not the first time someone, including Chelsea supporters, will feel that we have overpaid for a player. The reality is football works in a unique way. Transfer fees this window are hard to understand. In the past few weeks I have read on this forum and elsewhere that Tottenham have overpaid for more than one player, that Anderson to Manchester City for just £1 million less than proposed for Rogers was too much and even overseas. Barcelona‘s fee for Gordon is questionable.
There is nothing we as a group of supporters can do about transfer fees so let’s focus on the player who seems to meet the criteria we have all been asking for, he is Premier League ready, physically he is a bigger player, in the past two seasons (his first two seasons the PL) his goals per game ratio is high, as all his assists, and that continues across the board when you include other competitions. Finally, even though this is a player that CFC have had their eyes on for some time perhaps most importantly it is a purchase that Alonso not only supports but also help get over the line.