Chelsea urged to ditch £80m pursuit of PL star and avoid massive ‘overkill’ transfer mistake
Former Liverpool and England striker Emile Heskey has warned Chelsea against signing Aston Villa attacker Morgan Rogers this summer.
The Blues have spent over £200m so far this summer with Kendry Paez, Mamadou Sarr, Dario Essugo, Estevao, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens all arriving by mid-July.
But after receiving a cash boost from their success at the Club World Cup earlier this month, Enzo Maresca’s side are not done yet in the summer transfer market.
A report claimed earlier this week that Chelsea have made Aston Villa star Rogers their ‘top target’ with the Blues encouraged by Unai Emery’s interest in signing Nicolas Jackson.
The report added that a ‘Villa bid for Jackson would trigger an immediate formal offer from Chelsea for Rogers’ with Aston Villa apparently looking for around £80m for the England international.
It is made clear that ‘a partial-swap deal involving Jackson is NOT on the cards because financial rules make separate transfers more attractive’.
READ: Ranking and reassigning Aston Villa’s ten most valuable stars amid transfer window stasis
But former Premier League striker Heskey insists that a move for Rogers seems strange, especially for the price, given he is “going to be behind” Cole Palmer in the pecking order.
Heskey told BestBettingSites.co.uk: “I think he’s ready. But it’d be interesting to see Chelsea try to get him, because Villa don’t really need to be selling their prize assets.
“But we keep coming back to PSR, and clubs will now always way up a good offer for their players, and selling Rogers might help them balance the books, and he’s one of their most valuable players.
“I’m not sure where he’d fit in with Chelsea right now, though, even if Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke go. He’s going to be behind Cole Palmer in the pecking order.”
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And Heskey reckons a deal for Rogers would be “overkill” from Chelsea with the Premier League club just “buying players for the sake of it”.
Ex-Liverpool striker Heskey continued: “It would be interesting as it’s another Manchester City player who might make their way to Chelsea, but I think he should spend another year at Villa, at least.
“He’s going well, the club are on the up, and they could break into that top four this season. That’s a really big challenge and a good one for him, too.
“I think if he did go to Chelsea, he could be fantastic, but for Chelsea it might be overkill, buying players for the sake of it.”
