Morgan Rogers has made the wrong decision, and Chelsea's obsession with Arsenal is embarrassing | OneFootball

Arsenal may have made a mess of the Morgan Rogers transfer, but they can, and will, move on from that pretty quickly. Rogers, meanwhile, is now stuck with a seriously career-damaging move to Chelsea.

The England international has been on a brilliant trajectory up to now, having made his breakthrough in the Championship with Middlesbrough to then earn himself a move to the Premier League with Aston Villa.

From there, Rogers hasn’t looked back, being named PFA Young Player of the Year for 2024/25, and then playing a starring role for Villa as they won the Europa League last season.

The next logical step up would have been a club like Arsenal – the reigning Premier League champions, Champions League finalists, a team who have slowly rebuilt themselves the right way, through stability and patience under the same manager for almost seven years.

Instead, he’s left Champions League football at Villa Park for a team that finished 10th last season and who are now in their sixth full time manager since Arteta took over at Arsenal.

Morgan Rogers to Chelsea could be career suicide

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Rogers may well have chosen career suicide here. Chelsea are nowhere near the force they once were, with a muddled project under Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali that is yet to bring success despite vast amounts of spending on one signing after another, as well as the noted frequent managerial changes.

Yes, things look a bit more promising for now, having hired a more proven manager in Xabi Alonso, but who knows if he’ll still be there in 12 or even six months’ time? And yes, Rogers looks an exciting signing who arrives with a lot more experience at the highest level than some of the Blues’ recent purchases.

But is it enough? This squad still lacks a proper goalkeeper, the defence is far from top four standard, Enzo Fernandez wants to leave, and Cole Palmer has suffered a drastic drop-off in form in the last year or so.

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Perhaps Arsenal just wouldn’t pay up, taking the decision out of Rogers’ hands, but this all looks hugely unfortunate for him, as a supremely talented player has trusted probably the most chaotic of the traditional ‘big six’ clubs for this next crucial stage in his development.

Chelsea are behaving like a small club with cheap digs at Arsenal

First there was the infamous dig at Arsenal after the Champions League final, for which they later apologised, and then there’s the very deliberate Rogers quote about joining ‘the biggest club in London’, as per Chelsea’s official site.

Chelsea fans themselves must be sick of this after the team’s lack of recent success – focus on yourselves rather than your rivals.

For all the fans and media pundits alike seem to take some special joy in mocking the Gunners when they slip up, over-celebrate, or *checks notes* put together a successful set-piece routine, it’s hard to imagine the north Londoners ever engaging in such classless social media antics like this in the pursuit of clicks and rage engagement.

Whatever justifiable issues there were with Roman Abramovich’s ownership of Chelsea, you could at least look back then and say they were a proper football club. This current Chelsea is more like a weird recruitment experiment trying to pull the wool over their supporters’ eyes by taking pot shots at their rivals and attempting to live off their past glories.

Chelsea are a disaster. Rogers’ arrival doesn’t change that. And fans shouldn’t fall for it.