Chelsea are at it again. The Blues have agreed a whopping £117 million deal with Aston Villa to sign Morgan Rogers, which would make the Aston Villa midfielder the most expensive British player in football history. Sources have told ESPN the deal is done, and honestly, at this point nobody should be surprised that Chelsea are the ones breaking the British transfer record.
Morgan Rogers has had a genuinely impressive rise. Not long ago he was bouncing around on loan spells trying to find his feet, and now he's got Chelsea handing over the kind of money that would make Roman Abramovich raise an eyebrow. Credit where it's due — the lad has developed into a proper top-level player under Unai Emery at Villa, and his performances this season clearly caught a lot of eyes at the top end of the Premier League.
For Aston Villa, this is a massive windfall and also a bit of a headache. Emery has done a brilliant job building that squad into genuine European contenders, and selling your most exciting creative player is never ideal. £117 million does soften the blow considerably though, and Villa have shown before that they can reinvest smartly. They'll need to here.
As a Manchester United fan, watching Chelsea spend this kind of money is about as enjoyable as stepping on a plug in the dark. But in all fairness, if Rogers kicks on the way it looks like he might, this could actually end up being decent business for Chelsea in the long run. The lad is young, English, and clearly has a very high ceiling. The fee is eye-watering, but top young British talent always costs a premium these days.
The bigger question is whether Chelsea can actually build a coherent team around their enormous collection of players, because buying talent and using it well are two very different things. Rogers is a great signing on paper. Whether it works in practice depends entirely on what happens in that Chelsea dressing room and dugout.
Let me know your thoughts.