What Monchi kept telling Morgan Rogers as Aston Villa transfer truth revealed
Aston Villa forward Morgan Rogers is excited to continue playing his role in helping the club reach the "next level"
Morgan Rogers has revealed Unai Emery is more demanding of him the better he performs for Aston Villa.
The 22-year-old has enjoyed a rapid rise under Emery in the last year after signing for just £8.5m plus add-ons from Middlesbrough.
Rogers has become a crucial element in Emery’s team, starting 22 of the club’s 23 league matches - missing the win over Leicester through suspension - and also all eight Champions League fixtures.
The forward sat down with Kate Tracey and Alan McInally on the Villa Podcast to discuss how his move to the club came about and his ambitions in the coming years.
“Monchi and Damian (Vidagany) kept reiterating that it’s coming from the manager and he’s desperate to sign you, he’s seen something in you," Rogers explained.
“That feeling, there’s nothing better than feeling wanted. From moment one, as hard as he is on me, I feel it because he does the extra to want me to improve, to want me to get better because he sees something in me and wants me to shine.
“We speak all the time about the next challenges. The better I play the worse it gets in terms of the more I’ve got to do to keep going.
“There aren’t many people like that. There are managers that will get on you and then when they see you doing well they’ll move on to the next person, but he’s so demanding.”
He added: “We want to get to the next level as a club and to do that we’ve got to play in big games, win the big games and compete in the big games.
“That’s all the manager talks about; he doesn’t just want to be content with what we’ve done. He didn’t come here to do what we’ve done in the last two years and go back to being a sometimes team.
“He wants to be that consistent team that fights for the Champions League every season and be competing in every competition."
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