How Chelsea beat Arsenal to land Morgan Rogers transfer and the crucial Xabi Alonso role

November 2, 2020 – Chelsea’s young defenders were always going to have a hell of a job in keeping Manchester City’s attacking line quiet. This is, of course (not), a reference to the 2020 FA Youth Cup final between Chelsea and Man City’s Under-18 teams, played in front of no supporters at St. George’s Park due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

City’s attacking line featured some exciting talent, who are incidentally all playing their football in the Premier League almost six years on. James McAtee, once upon a time of interest to Chelsea, featured 26 times for Nottingham Forest last season. Cole Palmer has been Chelsea’s poster boy for the last few seasons, while Liam Delap would do anything to one day reach his teammate’s status.

And a certain Morgan Rogers – the subject of a £117million agreement between Chelsea and Aston Villa on Saturday. If Chelsea’s youngsters were to get their hands on the FA Youth Cup trophy, their defence and goalkeeper were going to need to have an extraordinary game.

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It was actually Chelsea, who of course had their own talent on the pitch at St. George’s Park, that took the lead when Marcel Lewis capitalised on some questionable goalkeeping from Cieran Slicker. It was a case of ‘so far, so good’ for the young west Londoners but keeping that attacking talent at bay was a really challenging task and it felt like ‘when, not if’ City scored.

McAtee levelled the match on 37 minutes after Palmer put the ball on a plate for him after some typically excellent work down the right-hand side. McAtee wheeled away towards Palmer, pointing at his friend to give him his flowers.

Some great centre-forward play from Delap; who ran powerfully down the right side before pulling it back to Rogers, saw City take the lead moments into the second half. Taylor Harwood-Bellis was unfortunate to put through the back of his own goal around an hour into the final but City just kept coming for Chelsea.

Eventually Chelsea couldn’t hold on any longer when Palmer got rather fortunate for the ball to ricochet in his direction and he had the simple task of knocking it into an empty net. That proved to be the winner – City’s star-studded attack was too much for the Blues.

Remarkably, after all this time, there is a strong possibility that three of those four attackers will be playing their football at Stamford Bridge. The Chelsea-City connection does not stop there, either, with the west London club’s co-director of recruitment and talent, Joe Shields, spending over nine years in the blue half of Manchester.

Shields played a big role in City bringing a talented Rogers to the club in 2019 and integrating him into the academy system. Having spent around nine years in West Bromwich Albion’s academy, less than nine miles from his birthplace Halesowen, Shields helped City snap up the talented then-17-year-old.

As soon as Shields joined Chelsea – in a different role to the one he worked in at City – it seemed inevitable there would be a few signings inspired by his previous job. Delap and Palmer, as mentioned, Rogers looks as if he is going to sign, also the likes of Romeo Lavia, Jamie Gittens and Tosin Adarabioyo.

Just a couple of months after Rogers’ heroics in the aforementioned FA Youth Cup final, City felt a loan move to League One leaders, at the time, Lincoln City would benefit the promising youngster. So it did; six goals in 25 league appearances for Rogers in the second half of the 2020/21 season saw him come out of the other side a much better player.

Loans at Bournemouth and Blackpool followed but by the time they were over in the summer of 2023, it became clear to Rogers and his representatives that first-team minutes under Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium would be incredibly difficult to come by. Former City boss Guardiola explained just that a couple of years ago.

“Sometimes it’s the right time and you can give the chance,” explained Guardiola. “Everybody knows how good Morgan is and a lot of players that were loaned or sold from Manchester City, but in that age there are moments we had players we had that allowed us to create the most success in the history of our club.

“And in that moment, sometimes when they arrive they are two or three years younger. And in that moment, there are Kevin (De Bruyne) in their prime, David Silva, Bernardo (Silva), Riyad (Mahrez), Leroy (Sane), Raheem (Sterling) and sometimes it is difficult.

“It is the only reason why. In that situation right now, of course these types of players would be with Manchester City! That is obvious. But it was in the right moment, that’s what happened.”

For Rogers, the brave decision to move to the Championship was taken. Middlesbrough had been watching the Englishman closely during his loan spells in the EFL and decided to take a punt on him.

Rogers spent less than 12 months in the north-east but in that time, he lit up England’s second tier and caught the attention of many – including Chelsea. The Blues always had half an eye on Rogers due to the Shields connection but they got to see the talent in the flesh at Stamford Bridge when the former Boro attacker scored his side’s only goal of the game in a 6-1 Carabao Cup victory in January 2024.

Just nine days after scoring in west London, Aston Villa snapped Rogers up, paying Boro £8m – plus around £7m in further add-ons. From Boro’s point of view, Rogers was always going to go on and secure a big move away but they got the financial side of it spot on – and that has paid now with the Championship club securing around £20m, sources say, from Chelsea’s £117m move due to a 20% sell-on clause.

Rogers has gone from strength to strength since plying his trade at Villa Park. Now he is a full-fledged England international, who more than played his part in the Three Lions’ recently-concluded World Cup campaign. The soon-to-be Chelsea star produced a wonderful assist for Anthony Gordon to put England a goal to the good in Wednesday’s semi-final defeat to Argentina.

That could have been one of the most re-watched goals in English football history and it was down to a beautiful assist from Rogers.

While helping England in North America, Rogers’ representatives have been working to secure him a move away this summer. Villa would have loved to keep Rogers but it always felt like this summer would see him move on, despite the Europa League champions securing Champions League football yet again next season.

It has been Arsenal, though, who have been the clear favourites to land Rogers before September’s transfer deadline. There have been constant checks with Stamford Bridge sources in relation to Rogers this summer but the response has usually been along the lines of: there is long-term interest but the Gunners are more advanced.

That was true at the time, though you can’t help but feel there must have been a quiet confidence at Chelsea that a deal could be done. The Blues used their trump card – Xabi Alonso – to help get the transfer over the line.

Alonso is said to have spoken to Rogers directly to present the Chelsea project as a whole, as well as telling the 23-year-old where he fits in his plans in SW6. That is one of the biggest benefits from having a big-name manager; someone who is respected around the world of football – deals get done.

No European football for Chelsea? No problem. Alonso is there. And the signings follow.

That is not always going to be the case, of course, but Alonso played a significant role in Chelsea sealing an agreement with Rogers.

Having so many close friends at Stamford Bridge would have also helped with Rogers’ decision. Rogers and Palmer came through the youth ranks in Manchester together before taking their careers in different directions, but the two have always stayed close.

Rogers has accused Palmer of copying his ‘cold’ celebration – something most of us associate with the latter. Palmer has used his ‘cold’ persona to create a brand for himself; having his own £4 ice cubes – something that went viral on the internet earlier this month after the Chelsea attacker brought some with him to the club’s Cobham base.

Last year, Palmer successfully trademarked the term ‘Cold Palmer’ with the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office. In many ways, it seems Palmer owes a thank you to Rogers, but it is all light-hearted fun.

Who did the ‘cold’ cele first? Only Palmer and Rogers really know. They won’t care when they are doing it together at Stamford Bridge next season. Nor will Alonso. And nor will Chelsea supporters. Together they will try and freeze the Premier League.