Richard Keys takes swipe over Aston Villa ace Morgan Rogers - 'Staggering'
Richard Keys has slammed Manchester City for their "staggering" decision to sell Morgan Rogers to Aston Villa.
The Villans beat Pep Guardiola's side on Saturday (21 December) at Villa Park to hand the Citizens a ninth loss in their last 12 matches.
Former City man Rogers assisted the opener and scored the second goal of the game to put his side two goals ahead and it would turn out to be the winner.
Writing in his blog [23 December], Keys criticised the Manchester club's record of selling promising academy talents like Rogers, Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia, saying: "Staggering isn’t it? Look. I get it.
"Every coach has dropped a [expletive] and let someone leave whose gone on to have a career. Every coach except Fergie that is - but come on. That’s a barrel full of [expletive] dropped.
City's loss is Aston Villa gain
The West Brom academy product joined Middlesbrough in a £1.5 million deal in July 2023 after not making a senior appearance for City.
After scoring seven goals and notching nine assists in his loan season on Teeside, the 22-year-old was snapped up by Unai Emery's side in a £8m deal that could potentially reach £15m.
He has shone at Villa Park this season, notching five goals and three assists in 17 Premier League matches and earned his first England cap in the 3-0 win over Greece (17 November).
It seems like a matter of time before Rogers is snapped up by a bigger club but he will not come cheap.
The Villans will want a significant increase on the fee that they paid for the incredible talent and a January deal is not on the cards.
However, whether Villa can fend off interested parties in the summer transfer window remains to be seen.