{"id":21892,"date":"2026-07-27T13:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21892"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:18:26","slug":"chelsea-xabi-alonso-explains-plan-for-rogers-palmer-axis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21892","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea: Xabi Alonso explains &#8216;plan&#8217; for Rogers-Palmer axis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso insists he has a \u201cplan\u201d to play club-record \u00a3117million signing Morgan Rogers alongside Cole Palmer \u2013 and believes the England international will also make an \u201cinstant impact\u201d at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>The attacking midfielder became the most expensive British player of all-time when he moved from Aston Villa to Chelsea last week, having flown back from North America after the Three Lions reached the semi-finals at the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old is now on holiday, while <strong>Chelsea<\/strong> have begun their pre-season tour in Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>And speaking about the sort of impact <strong>Rogers<\/strong> can have in west London, Alonso told reporters out in Australia: \u201cIn that position we needed an important player and I\u2019m sure there were not many better options than Morgan Rogers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need players who can have that almost instant impact and I\u2019m sure Morgan won\u2019t need much time to adapt to the club, the system and his team-mates,\u201d Alonso said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the idea, to get a top player, and Morgan is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Morgan Rogers \u2018joined the wrong club\u2019 in Chelsea over \u2018tailor-made\u2019 Liverpool<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rogers has signed a six-year contract with Chelsea, with an option for a further year, and Alonso is confident he will be ready for the start of the season and can perform an exciting attacking tandem with \u2018good friend\u2019 Palmer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a plan. I have an idea. I can see them linking really well,\u201d Alonso said of the pair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to have a good mix. If we get that balance right and those special players in the right positions, with good control, then we will be more competitive with and without the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Alonso expects more Chelsea transfer activity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Chelsea are not done with their business for the summer, however, despite their big-money deal for Rogers, alongside the captures of winger Geovany Quenda from Sporting, striker Emmanuel Emegha from Strasbourg and full-back Marco Palestra from Atalanta.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBxntjFieo\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>They are also expected to sign midfielder Valentin Barco, also from Strasbourg, in the coming weeks and are close to announcing the \u00a352m signing of France international defender Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n<p>That will leave Chelsea with nearly 40 players in their squad and needing to sell a substantial number of them, with Alonso adding:\u00a0\u201cWe need to know that there will probably still be some movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to be flexible and quick to act. The main thing is that we have a clear idea, a clear plan that we have built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will probably change before the transfer window closes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Chelsea considering \u2018submitting new bid\u2019 for Arsenal target who wants Stamford Bridge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want a squad with the right balance between quality and mentality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose things need to match in terms of maturity, but I think we are starting the new season with good energy. That\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso insists he has a \u201cplan\u201d to play club-record \u00a3117million signing Morgan&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21892","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\/21892","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=21892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}