Morgan Rogers - f**king off to Chelsea

[PaulWinch again]

That’s entirely it. He is a game winner in his own right. Hopefully we’ll replace that, but it’s not easy. His stats over his Villa career are very strong - also I wouldn’t look back on the fans ironically cheering a pass with anything other than embarrassment. I think what he did after that during the season shows how lame that was.

[N'ZMAV]

I don't think Chelsea would have been Rogers first choice

[PeterWithesShin]

No one forced him to go there.

[N'ZMAV]

I quite like it when players want a move then they get one they didn't really want.

Southgate to Boro springs to mind.

[Grumpy]

Did Ornstein really say that quote about arsenal or are arsenal fans using it to try and suggest they stood firm on pricing (as opposed to maybe not having been involved at all)?

[LeeB]

Did Ornstein really say that quote about arsenal or are arsenal fans using it to try and suggest they stood firm on pricing (as opposed to maybe not having been involved at all)?

I believe the kids call it 'copium'.

[eye digress]

Agree on all counts Smithy. I think the main query about why Rogers wants to go to Chelsea is their lack of CL next season, but Alonso is a great coach and they have a chance to challenge with him, if he can quell the ego’s in a way he couldn’t at Madrid.

Agree that Alonso is a good coach.

For me, the issue for him at Chelsea is less the egos of the players than those of the 5 (I think) directors of football, all suited and booted, very well paid, with the ear of top management and in need of affirmation.

[Dave]

Maybe the Arsenal fans I know in real life are the few normal ones, but they've greeted this news with the biggest shrug of the shoulders imaginable.

Why would they give a toss?

[Chris Harte]

Maybe the Arsenal fans I know in real life are the few normal ones, but they've greeted this news with the biggest shrug of the shoulders imaginable.

Why would they give a toss?

Maybe because for over a month now Arsenal fans have been telling Villa fans on Twitter that we're "going to accept £65m/£85m* and be grateful for it", as if a) they get to set the price, and b) they're paying for it out of their own pockets.

[Olneythelonely]

They’re not “normal” Arsenal fans though. X football fans are a different kind of moronic

[Mellin]

That's the problem though. Unless you've moved to London or Singapore, the majority of your exposure to Arsenal fans is online...and they are a sodding nightmare.

[Chris Harte]

They’re not “normal” Arsenal fans though. X football fans are a different kind of moronic

Yep, I get that. And a high proportion of them seem to have accounts created in Nigeria, south Asia and the like (so real, regular, match-going fans!), they've been pretty insufferable though.

[Dogtanian]

So long Morgan, and thanks for all the worldies. X

[eye digress]

He chose to leave a side in the CL for a side that finished 10th. That's a bit mercenary.

I suspect we pulled his pants down a bit.  At some point he indicated he wanted to leave so the terms were reluctantly agreed (seemingly “it must be a British record fee”). He expected Arsenal to meet those terms, they fucked about, and Chelsea “swooped”. 

There’s was a tweet - from the telegraph I think - that Nas Sawiris and Eghbali (?) have been negotiating this deal directly so Rogers/the agents might have been kept out of it, to an extent.

Chelsea is only a surprise, more recently, to the extent that they have no European football this season.

But it is the club he has repeatedly been linked to, in the last three summer windows - as documented by The Athletic, if I recall. From that perspective, the destination has been writ large for months.

Given that those links have occurred under at least three Chelsea managers, you'd have to conclude that there is a constant at play - whether that be the friendship with Cole Palmer or (as the Telegraph reporting hints at), the close relations between our respective top management.

[Dave]

Maybe the Arsenal fans I know in real life are the few normal ones, but they've greeted this news with the biggest shrug of the shoulders imaginable.

Why would they give a toss?

Maybe because for over a month now Arsenal fans have been telling Villa fans on Twitter that we're "going to accept £65m/£85m* and be grateful for it", as if a) they get to set the price, and b) they're paying for it out of their own pockets.

But why would any real person, Villa fan or Arsenal fan care about what a bunch of engagement-farming dicks on a weird child porn website are arguing about?