The sight of Morgan Rogers powering through Manchester City's challenges as an NFL wide receiver would have brought a smile to his old Lincoln City teammates.
When Rogers joined the Imps on loan from City in January 2021, he had never made a senior appearance. Many talented players don't complete the jump from age group matches to competitive football, but it only took one team meeting for Rogers to show his new colleagues that he could do it.
“When we were working on opposition set pieces, Morgan asked to mark the biggest players,” Michael Appleton, Lincoln boss at the time, told Mail Sport. 'He didn't mind contact or physical challenges.
'He wanted to learn and always asked questions during meetings. He came over from City and said: 'I just want to play football' and he also had the technical quality. He grabbed the ball with his back foot and that allowed him to move forward quickly.
'At Manchester City he was a bit lost in the system. He was quite quiet and shy, but had an inner confidence and belief in his own abilities.'
After Rogers' stellar display against City, the focus was on how the Premier League champions had allowed another academy gem to slip through their fingers after selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea in the summer of 2023.
That's not the problem here. As Pep Guardiola noted: City won everything in sight at that moment, and throughout football history, players have been overlooked only to be left to regret by their clubs.
The problem for City is that Rogers is the prototype of the modern Premier League striker, and Guardiola has no one like him.
When top clubs scout forwards now, they are not looking for a number 9, number 10 or a winger.
They want someone who has the technical and physical qualities to do all those jobs in the same game, but who can also compete strongly in duels. Rogers is well on his way to achieving that goal, as is Jhon Duran, Villa's other goalscorer. Not bad for a total amount of less than €25 million.
According to statistics from FBref.com, Rogers attempted four progressive carries – moving the ball ten yards closer to the opponent's goal – resulting in four shooting attempts and two goals. City simply couldn't live with him.
Unai Emery has said many times this season that he is trying to find a way to fit Ollie Watkins and Duran on one team. The more he says it, the more it feels like a diversion.
Duran is now the starting striker and there is no way Emery would leave Rogers on the bench to accommodate Watkins. He is also unlikely to play the three together and risk upsetting the balance of the squad.
Rogers' time is now. And if that's bad news for Watkins, who will certainly be looking at his options if he remains on the bench, it's even more ominous for Guardiola and City.
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