Express & Star chief sports writer Matt Maher gives his verdict on the player’s imminent move to Chelsea.

Morgan Rogers ranks comfortably as Villa’s greatest-ever piece of transfer business.

A player signed for an initial £8million, is leaving two-and-a-half years later for a British record £117m.

In between, he played a major role in helping the club twice qualify for the Champions League and end their 30-year trophy drought.

Rogers’ goal in May’s Europa League final win over Freiburg has turned out to be a fitting send-off for one of the best bargain buys of the Premier League era.

Villa, of course, won’t see all of the money, with Middlesbrough due around 20 per cent of the profit on the sale.

Yet even accounting for the £20m or so heading to Teesside, the add-ons triggered which might have taken the original fee closer to £15m, or whatever has been paid to Rogers in terms of salary, Villa are still up on the deal by around £70m.

That he is leaving now is no huge surprise. As far back as February, senior club officials were privately admitting a departure was likely, while more recently one member of staff remarked how this summer had echoes of five years ago, when Jack Grealish became the first British player to move for £100m.

The only question, as then, was whether any suitors would come up with an offer big enough to persuade Villa to sell.

Sure enough, Chelsea have. The fact the London club are paying precisely one million more for Rogers and Manchester City did for his England team-mate Elliot Anderson, ensuring it is a British record, is no accident.

Perhaps the only surprise is the destination, particularly as Arsenal appeared confident enough to brief that Rogers was their No.1 attacking target.

But on the other hand, it makes sense. As demonstrated by the deals which sent Ian Maatsen to Villa Park and Omari Kellyman to Stamford Bridge two years ago, the relations between Villa and Chelsea at boardroom level are good. They are two clubs who do not find it difficult doing business with each other. Rogers, meanwhile, is attracted by the chance to play underneath Xabi Alonso and alongside his long-time friend, Cole Palmer.

Financially, the deal is an excellent one for Villa, who have been under severe pressure to comply with Uefa’s financial rules. Though they won’t be able to reinvest all of the money, selling Rogers does significantly ease the burden. The relative speed in which the deal has been done, immediately after England’s exit from the World Cup, has provided time to plan.

In football terms, there’s no point pretending it is anything other than a huge blow.

For two seasons, Rogers has been a rock in Unai Emery’s team, a player of immense durability to which the manager always knew he could turn to.

Despite some notable dips in form, his production levels have been mightily impressive. At 23, he is surely only getting started. Great as Rogers has been for Villa, there should be frustration his best will likely be seen elsewhere.

Yet one of the great truisms of football recruitment is the players you buy are always more important than the ones you sell.

Villa have moved quickly to snap up Johan Manzambi in a club-record deal, while the fees received for Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne will help fund a rebuild which will also see the arrival of Joao Gomes and a winger, with Ibrahim Mbaye and Crysencio Summerville among the top targets.

You would suspect, having now lost four of his first-choice XI in the space of a fortnight following Amadou Onana’s injury, Emery will be reluctant to see any more of his most trusted players depart. Ezri Konsa, who has interest from Arsenal, would be just one example.

Away from Villa, meanwhile, Rogers’ move might also be considered a feather in the cap for West Midlands football as a whole.

He becomes the third player born, bred and developed in the region to move in a deal worth more than £100m, joining Grealish and Jude Bellingham. All three sit among the top-five most expensive British players, an achievement testament to themselves, their families, the academies at Albion, Villa, Blues and those junior and school teams - in Rogers’ case Halas Hawks - which first set them on their way to stardom.