Morgan Rogers believes Chelsea are primed to fight for major honours again, insisting his long-standing understanding with Cole Palmer gives the club a head start as the new season gets under way.
Rogers became the most expensive British footballer in history when he swapped Aston Villa for Stamford Bridge in the immediate aftermath of England's run to the World Cup semi-finals, where the Three Lions eventually finished third.
The 24-year-old marked his first appearance for the club in style, scoring on his debut as Chelsea beat Real Sociedad 3-1 on Saturday.
I'm just so excited. It was just an unbelievable summer.
It's probably the one summer where I didn't mind that it was a short one. I love my rest, I love my time with my family but at the same time it was one where I was watching the pre-season games, itching to just get back in.
He described the mood inside the club under its new regime as one of genuine optimism rather than blind hope.
I feel the excitement walking in every day. I feel the anticipation of not knowing where it can go. It can be good, it can be bad, but I feel a positive energy and a vibe. A fresh manager, a fresh change of environment, new players added and stuff - I feel that everyone's excited to see where it can go and where we can take it.
Obviously, everyone's talking about it, who knows what we're going to do? But that's down to us and that's the thing - we've got a confident group of players that believe in ourselves and believe in each other's ability and our own.
A club built on winning
Rogers grew up idolising Chelsea sides packed with silverware, and he wants to help restore that identity.
Chelsea is a club that wants to win things. It's a club that I've always grown up watching win titles, win Champions Leagues and I want to be in teams that do that as well.
The players - the Hazards, the Drogbas, the Lampards coming through when I was growing up watching football. It's a massive team and they were always winning and competing for titles and I want to be in teams that do that here.
There's a lot of players in that room that have the aspirations to do the same thing, so it's exciting where we can take it.
It's about knuckling down now and proving people wrong who probably had a negative outlook on Chelsea in the last couple of years. I'm excited, I'm positive and I can't wait really.
Chelsea's pursuit of Rogers was completed through a whirlwind negotiation late in July, with reports at the time suggesting Arsenal had also been keen before the forward opted for Stamford Bridge, according to The Athletic. Our own earlier reporting detailed how Rogers completed a British-record £117million move to Chelsea, signing until 2032 with the option of an additional year, and how the deal signalled a shift in approach under Xabi Alonso, with John Stones and Alex Scott also mentioned as potential targets.
The switch had a knock-on effect at Villa Park too, with our earlier coverage noting that Aston Villa moved for Alejandro Garnacho as Rogers departed for west London, with Unai Emery keen to revive the 22-year-old's career.
Sky Sports reported that the transfer made Rogers the most expensive British player of all time, eclipsing Elliot Anderson's £116million move to Manchester City earlier in the summer, according to Sky Sports. The New York Times' football title, The Athletic, added that the £117million fee came on a six-year contract with a club option for a further twelve months, and that Rogers was always expected to join up with the squad once Chelsea's pre-season tour of Australia and Asia was complete, as reported by The Athletic.
Rogers and Palmer: 'we know exactly how to play with each other'
Moving to Chelsea reunites Rogers with a familiar face in Cole Palmer, a friendship and footballing partnership that stretches back to their teenage years together at Manchester City's academy, where Rogers arrived from West Brom, as well as time spent together on England duty.
I've seen people saying, 'how are you going to fit them in? How are they going to play?'
We have completely different qualities. He's more of a passer, a linker, a combiner. He's like an artist in the way he moves with the ball and plays with it.
I'm more direct, more straight line and more physical. We're completely different and that offsets really well.
I've known his game, he's known my game since we were what, 14? We've played with each other at England and stuff like that, so we know exactly how to play with each other and to get the best out of each other.
Some people might not know how it looks like, but we do. We know how it looks, we've done it before. People will pit us against each other, but we're on the same team now and it's about winning and getting the best out of each other, and I think we'll do that.
Off the pitch always helps on the pitch - and playing with one of your closest friends always [helps] bring the best out of each other in a competitive way of wanting to kind of outdo each other. But there has to be a line of the team comes first, and winning comes first, and that's always been our biggest thing.
'I want to be the topic of discussion'
Carrying a nine-figure price tag inevitably brings scrutiny, but Rogers insists he thrives on being central to the conversation, both at club and international level.
This is what I live for. These are the conversations I want to be in.
I want to be the topic of discussion when talking about games I'm involved in or England selections.
I want to be in those conversations - sometimes on the good end of it, sometimes on the bad end of it - but if I'm in those conversations I'm doing something right.
This summer I was getting into that and I was getting a taste for it of what it feels like. I know I've got a lot more to come and I like that pressure of it being on me where I've got the keys to decide how I'm spoken about in those conversations.
If I've got the kind of say in what happens and what comes next then I'll be confident in myself to be on the right end of it.
What happens next
Rogers has already had his first taste of life at Chelsea's Cobham training base, working alongside a batch of fellow new arrivals including Jordan Henderson, Maxence Lacroix and Valentin Barco, according to the BBC. The BBC also confirmed that Rogers found the net in that 3-1 pre-season victory over Real Sociedad, as covered in a separate BBC report.
Chelsea's competitive campaign continues away at Fulham on Monday, 24 August 2026, according to ESPN's fixture list, before the club's first home Premier League game of the season, against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, 30 August 2026, as confirmed by Chelsea's official website.
