Pep Guardiola laments letting ‘exceptional’ Morgan Rogers leave Manchester City

Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City had an “exceptional player” in their ranks with Morgan Rogers as they prepare to face him in a six-pointer to qualify for the Champions League.

Rogers struck for Aston Villa when they beat his former club in December but was never given a first-team appearance by Guardiola as he was loaned out to Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool before being sold to Middlesbrough.

But the winger has kicked on at Villa, becoming a full England international and scoring in the Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

open image in gallery

Now City run the risk of being punished for allowing him to leave and Guardiola looked back to his time at the Etihad Stadium, saying: “He was in the second team, and trained sometimes with us, and we could see something like could do it, but the impact he’s had in Villa, what a player, we had an exceptional player here, absolutely.”

City are a point ahead of Villa in a five-team battle for the last three Champions League places and Guardiola believes Tuesday’s match will be like a final.

He expects a tough game, adding: “It's a contender to qualify for the Champions League, and you see both games, they play against my friend Luis Enrique, at PSG, wow, I was really, really impressed.”

Guardiola also believes Josko Gvardiol’s form in the middle means it is less likely City will buy a centre-back in the summer.

The Croatia international has spent most of his City career at left-back but has partnered Ruben Dias in recent weeks and that, along with the January signings of Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, means he has seven centre-back options in his squad.

open image in gallery

“They are doing a really, really good partnership, so he's an option, we'll see if we buy, I don't think we're going to,” he said. “The club needs central defenders, because we have a lot, and we bought two young ones.”