Some managerial appointments change everything.
The mood or the entire direction of a club.
And with the ink barely dry on his four-year contract, the new Chelsea manager has already made his priorities clear.
Xabi Alonso eyes Morgan Rogers as Chelsea target £80m Aston Villa star in first major transfer move
According to talkSPORT, Chelsea are among the clubs competing for the signature of Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers this summer, with a fee of around £80 million expected to be enough to convince Aston Villa to let their England international leave.
It’s a pursuit that carries enormous weight, especially as he still has five years still remaining on his contract
Rogers has established himself as one of the most exciting midfield talents in the Premier League this season.
Exactly the profile of player that Alonso built his Bayer Leverkusen machine around.
The most significant of those concessions was the transfer strategy.
Alonso made his position clear before agreeing to take the job.
He wanted assurances that Chelsea would move away from their policy of signing exclusively young players.
Instead, he opted to target experienced, established profiles to complement the exceptional young talent already in the building.
The club agreed.
And Rogers, being only 24-years-old, sits right in the middle of that new brief.
Young enough to develop further under Alonso’s guidance.
Yet experienced enough to make an immediate impact in a squad that desperately needs someone capable of doing both.
The blueprint Alonso implemented at Leverkusen is instructive.
Goalkeeper Robin Roefs has also been discussed as a potential transfer, following a superb season with Sunderland.
The rebuild under Alonso is ambitious and already in motion.
Rogers is the first name on the list.
And yet the summer has barely started.
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