\n<\/p>\n
Rogers returned from the United States on Monday, having represented England at the World Cup, to undergo a medical in London before finalising the move. It had been widely expected that Aston Villa’s most prized asset would leave only for an English transfer record fee, and many had tipped Arsenal to be the frontrunners for his signature.<\/span><\/p>\n Chelsea, though, had quietly been tracking Rogers for more than two years and had made him their top attacking target well before the interest became public. <\/span><\/p>\n The club moved decisively once England’s World Cup campaign ended following their semi-final defeat by Argentina, having deliberately held off making their approach out of respect for Rogers wanting to focus on the tournament first.<\/span><\/p>\n A combined effort involving Chelsea’s sporting directors, head coach Xabi Alonso and co-owner Behdad Eghbali helped push the deal through in the days that followed, with captain Reece James also said to have made the club’s case from within the England camp. <\/span><\/p>\n Cole Palmer, one of Rogers’ closest friends, was also aware of developments throughout. The operation was completed inside 48 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n Rogers, 23, will link up with Alonso’s squad ahead of the 2026\/27 season, with his contract running until 2033. <\/span><\/p>\n “I’m so excited,” he said. “For me, Chelsea are the biggest club in London and a club I’ve always admired since I was a kid.<\/span><\/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.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Alonso’s footballing philosophy played a significant part in convincing Rogers to make the move. <\/span><\/p>\n “I’ve had a few conversations with him and I think it’s important for me to be here that I need to understand what the manager’s like, how he is and how he wants to operate,” Rogers said.<\/span><\/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, and be free and express myself. Him being a part of that was a massive factor in me being here.”<\/span><\/p>\n The prospect of lining up alongside Palmer again also proved a major draw. The pair have been close since their early teens, first meeting up together in England’s youth set-up before both moving through Manchester City’s academy. <\/span><\/p>\n “I’ve known Cole since I was about 14, first in the England teams and then when we were both at Man City together,” Rogers said. “We’ve been speaking about this for a while; we always would love to have played together. So, for it to happen, we’re both excited.<\/span><\/p>\n “He’s non-stop ringing my phone, texting me, and I can’t wait. I think that’s probably the most special thing, playing with one of your best friends and being around him every day. It’s something I’m really excited about.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rogers returned from the United States on Monday, having represented England at the World Cup,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20245","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\/20245","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=20245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}