John McGinn didn’t actually rate Aston Villa teammate, now he’s ‘one of the best in the league’
Aston Villa are currently sitting in 19th after their disappointing start to the season.
However, with the quality of players Unai Emery has at his disposal, you would imagine this will change fairly quickly when the Premier League season resumes after the international break.
Harvey Elliott’s deadline day arrival only strengthens Emery’s squad further, as the Villans have the aim of finishing in a European spot.
Whilst Elliott will undoubtedly help their cause, John McGinn revealed that there was one previous piece of business the club conducted that he was initially far from convinced by.
John McGinn reveals Morgan Rogers did not impress him initially
Jadon Sancho was labelled a “panic buy” by Gabby Agbonlahor, and the winger may have to embark on a similar journey to Rogers at Villa and overcome early criticism.
Rogers, 23, is currently regarded as one of the best players in his position in the entire Premier League, but McGinn reveals Rogers did not impress him when he first arrived in B6.
Speaking in an interview on the Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel on 3 September, McGinn said: “He (Rogers) will say this himself, when he signed, I think it was for around 15 million, and at the time he wasn’t really getting talked about for a move. I don’t think he was properly ripping up trees at Middlesbrough.
“But the manager saw something in him that was special that none of us saw, but then when he started to grow here, you could see he was a special player. He’s just so unique, the way he runs with the ball, he can dribble through a whole team, and his confidence, his physicality, and he’s quality.
“I didn’t think he was rubbish, I’ve told him this, I just thought ‘is he gonna play a bit’, and he’s turned out to be one of our best players and one of the best players in the league. I don’t know what his value is now, but it’ll be 10 times that,” McGinn said.
- Rogers was outstanding for Villa last season
- The playmaker had 18 goal contributions in his 37 Premier League appearances last season
- Eight of these were goals, whilst the other 10 were assists
McGinn and the rest of the Aston Villa faithful will have been happy to see his teammate stay put this summer, after Rogers was linked with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur.
Whilst the former Manchester City man has started the season slowly, there will likely be a direct correlation between Rogers’ uptick in form as well as Villa’s form.
Unai Emery’s praise for Rogers
The fact that Rogers played in all but one of the Villans’ Premier League games shows the amount of faith and trust Emery has put in the youngster.
Emery, too, deserves immense credit for helping transform Rogers into the player he currently is with the Spanish manager previously being full of praise for the forward.
“He has the skills, he understands how we want to create our structure tactically, offensively and defensively,” Emery said after Villa’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth in April 2024. “He is showing his capacity, his adaptation is quick, and he’s scoring goals like today.
“He played today imposing as well, individually, in his duels a lot of times with the moment. He’s been fantastic.”
Sign up for the Villa News WhatsApp channel and turn on notifications to have all the latest, breaking Aston Villa news sent straight to your phone.