West Brom: It is easy to forget Aston Villa ace was once £4m Baggies starlet - View | OneFootball

Morgan Rogers is excelling on the Premier League stage, but the winger impressed at an academy nearby Villa Park, in West Brom.

You might have heard of a certain Morgan Rogers who is flourishing in the Premier League at Aston Villa under Unai Emery, but his growth at West Brom has gone somewhat under the radar.

Rogers has adapted excellently to the top flight since joining Villa in the January 2024 transfer window from Middlesbrough, with the 22-year-old has received potential shouts for an England call-up after his impressive performances at Villa Park.

Before Villa and Boro, Rogers was in the Manchester City system, where he never quite broke through into Pep Guardiola's first-team, taking in loan spells at Lincoln City, Bournemouth and Blackpool before making the switch to Middlesbrough on a permanent basis.

What was meant to be a prolonged stint at Villa to try and unlock his potential turned into a very short stay on Teesside for Rogers, who was snapped up by Villa after just half a season, with Emery personally seeing the attacking midfielder's true potential from his Championship performances.

It is a lot of clubs for someone at the age of 22, and there is another team - West Brom - whose role in developing Rogers into the player he is today is perhaps forgotten about.

Many will not realise that Morgan Rogers is a product of the West Brom academy

A £4 million price-tag put on your head at the age of 16 can be daunting for any young player, and perhaps that is why Rogers didn't develop at first into a player that could break into City's first-team squad in his late teens.

It was reportedly dubbed that Rogers was one of the most exciting young talents in English football in 2019, with his pace and power shining through, and they are attributes of the forward that are currently shining in the Premier League.

Rogers joined West Brom's academy as an Under-9's player, and just a few years later he was regarded as the jewel in Albion’s academy, with Richard Tait describing his talent as "something else" from the moment he first saw him train.

He made his senior Baggies debut in a FA Cup replay versus Brighton in February 2019 at the age of 16, which the Baggies went on to lose 3-1 in extra-time, but nonetheless, it was a key experience for Rogers, who would sign for Man City less than half a year later, having been taken by his performances at developmental level - a £4 million offer was seemingly too good to refuse to the Midlands outfit.

A friend of Rogers - Matt Smith - told Birmingham Live about the attacker's departure from The Hawthorns being completely out of his hands, and that it could've gone another way if it was up to the player himself.

"When he left Albion it was never out of his own prerogative to leave the club," Smith said.

"It was financially driven from Albion, which might not come as a surprise, but it was never him or his family, or that he got too big for his boots or that sort of thing."

Although he never got his chance at City, there is no doubt that conversations with Guardiola would've helped mould him into the player he is today.

Of course, we can see the promise shining through now, and Emery has unlocked his potential once more.

The sky is the limit for Morgan Rogers after Aston Villa breakthrough

Rogers' key lessons and observations at Man City City will no doubt contribute to the player he is forming into, but every player remembers where they started.

West Brom will always be the place where Rogers began his career, and it will no doubt it will be a tough pill to swallow for Baggies' fans, seeing him succeed for one of their rivals on the big stage.

Youu can be sure though that West Brom's youth coaches will be proud of the player they've created.

Another academy graduate that has gone onto do brilliant things is a trend developing in the Midlands. Jude Bellingham is the obvious stand-out, but Rogers' story is just beginning - he's had to do his various EFL loan stints to gain experience, but you can only see the ex-Baggies man doing big things in football now.