Joe Cole hails ‘absolute monster’ Chelsea star and praises transfer business
Joe Cole is excited to see how far Chelsea can go this season after a summer of good transfer business, with Morgan Rogers earning particularly high praise.
Chelsea backed new manager Xabi Alonso over the summer by signing Rogers in a club-record £117million deal from Aston Villa. The Blues also added vital experience to Alonso’s squad by landing Maxence Lacroix, Emi Martinez, Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, while Marco Palestra, Pep Chavarria and Geovany Quenda were all signed, too.
The capture of Martinez finally saw Chelsea address the goalkeeping position, which fans have been calling out for over several transfer windows.
Plus, Chelsea sold well, recouping £290m from the departures of Enzo Fernandez, Nicolas Jackson, Liam Delap and Andrey Santos alone, while unwanted players such as Alejandro Garnacho and Axel Disasi also left.
Alonso now boasts one of the best forward lines in the Premier League, with Rogers already shining alongside Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro.
Chelsea were beaten 2-1 by Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday, but they do not appear to be too far away from launching a title challenge.
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On The Dressing Room podcast, Cole said: “It’s really exciting at Chelsea. I went to Stamford Bridge to watch the game against Brighton and the front three of Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro just looked electric, so that gives you great excitement.
“Moises Caicedo being injured was a little dampener. Romeo Lavia is a good player but he just can’t seem to keep himself fit for a sustained period of time.
“Reece James, Malo Gusto, whoever plays in there with him, it’s not Enzo Fernandez and Caicedo.
“I thought Arsenal just slightly dominated that midfield area and that allowed them to build into the game, but there’s a lot to be proud of for Chelsea.”
Cole continued: “Whatever Cole Palmer has done in the summer has worked because he looks so smooth on the ball.
“Morgan Rogers is an absolute monster, I didn’t realise. I knew he was a top player but… first touch of the ball, bang. He just lit the game up.
‘A great summer’ for Chelsea – Joe Cole
“From a Chelsea perspective, it’s been a great summer in terms of bringing players in, and I think the squad looks more settled.
“Xabi Alonso is going to get better. We’ve got a lot of great players.
“There’s one bine of contention: I think we’ve left ourselves short in the midfield area and that’s going to have to be rectified.
“What I do like about that is they didn’t panic because they didn’t get the boy from Monaco [Lamine Camara] that they wanted, the number one target, and they didn’t go and buy a player to just fill a role.
“The money you would have to spend for a player of that quality is like £40-50million, and Chelsea can’t afford to make any more mistakes.
“I’m happy for us to go a bit loose for three months and not have the bodies in there, but get the right people in the door.”
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