{"id":22057,"date":"2026-07-27T18:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22057"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:26:18","slug":"alonso-celebrates-chelseas-record-117m-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22057","title":{"rendered":"Alonso celebrates Chelsea\u2019s record \u00a3117m coup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Xabi Alonso has backed Morgan Rogers to be a great signing for Chelsea after the midfielder completed his record move to the club.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Chelsea have signed Rogers from Aston Villa for a club record fee of \u00a3117m, with the 24-year-old becoming the second-most expensive signing in Premier League history.<\/div>\n<p>Rogers arrives having helped England to a third-place finish at the 2026 World Cup, a campaign which followed an impressive season at Villa Park.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder scored 14 goals in all competitions and was named Europa League Player of the Season as Aston Villa ended a 30-year wait for a major trophy with European success.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso is looking forward to working with Rogers once he returns from an extended post-season break. The Spaniard said Rogers was the best available option on the market as Chelsea sought to sign another creative midfielder this summer.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\" id=\"heading-1\">\u201cGreat signing\u201d: Xabi Alonso tips \u00a3117m Morgan Rogers to make instant Chelsea impact<\/h2>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">&#8220;For sure, it\u2019s a great signing,&#8221; Alonso said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea&#8217;s pre-season fixture against Western Sydney Wanderers.<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;In that position, we needed an important player and there were not many better options than Morgan Rogers. His signing means a lot for everyone and for the players that are already here.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of his best qualities is that he is flexible. He plays in that pocket position, close to the striker, close to our number ten \u2013 but he has also played on the right side even though he is more used to coming from the left.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He feels he is enjoying his game, his flow, and I\u2019m sure he will have good connections with the other players around him. If we get those connections right, that will be a great step forward in the quality of our game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we started talking, we wanted to build a competitive squad, and you need players who can have that almost-instant impact. I\u2019m sure Morgan won\u2019t need much time to adapt to the club, to the system, to his team-mates. The idea was that we wanted to get a top player: Morgan is one of them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Xabi Alonso has backed Morgan Rogers to be a great signing for Chelsea after the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22057","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\/22057","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=22057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}