Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter Alonso’s intervention, Rogers quickly agreed personal terms with Chelsea – who had been long-term admirers of the 23-year-old – before the west Londoners reached a \u00a3117m agreement with Villa on Saturday. Rogers has cited Alonso as a big influence in choosing a switch to the Blues instead of elsewhere, with Arsenal the favourites to land the versatile attacker prior.<\/p>\n
“I’m so excited,” said Rogers on moving to Stamford Bridge. “For me, Chelsea are the biggest club in London and a club I’ve always admired since I was a kid.<\/p>\n
“I’m really excited about the project with the new manager, the players we’ve got and where the club is heading. That’s why I’m here and I can’t wait to get started.”<\/p>\n
The Gunners were big favourites to secure the signing of the sought-after England star but were unwilling, sources say, to pay over their \u00a380m valuation. Chelsea were more willing to satisfy Villa’s demands and the deal moved swiftly from there.<\/p>\n
Cole Palmer, a close friend of Rogers from their days together in Manchester City’s academy, is also said to be a big reason for the latter choosing Chelsea. Joe Shields, one of the Blues’ sporting directors, was working for City’s academy during Rogers’ time in Manchester and is said to have played a role in bringing the Englishman to the capital.<\/p>\n
On Alonso, Rogers said: “I’ve had a few conversations with him and I think it’s important for me to be here and to understand what the manager is like, how he is and how he wants to operate.<\/p>\n
“It very much fits with the way I see the game, the way I want to play, and the way I want to be me, be free and express myself. Him being a part of that was massive in my decision to be here.”<\/p>\n
Rogers is set to take a three-week break now following his World Cup exploits with England in North America. The Three Lions star is not expected to join up with his new Chelsea teammates during their four-country pre-season tour of Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia, but could make his debut for the Blues against Real Sociedad in a friendly at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, August 15.<\/p>\n
That will also be Alonso’s first match at his new home, with the Spaniard welcoming La Real, where he spent time as both a player and manager, to west London.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morgan Rogers is officially a Chelsea player with the 23-year-old committing his future to Stamford…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}