Life at Man Metropolis
Rogers rose by way of the ranks at West Brom, finally making his skilled debut for the membership in a FA Cup fifth spherical replay in opposition to Brighton in February 2019 – whereas he was nonetheless at college. “He excelled in that game,” remembers Tait.
Nevertheless it was throughout the Baggies’ run to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals in the identical 12 months that received Rogers his subsequent huge break. The ahead appeared within the final 4 conflict away at Manchester Metropolis, who had been so impressed they signed the ahead within the following summer time switch window.
“I didn’t want him to go to Man City. I thought he should have stayed at West Brom and learnt his trade a bit,” provides Tait.
“When you join a club the size of Man City, or Man Utd and Liverpool, players can get swallowed up when there are so many other fantastic players already. And then what is the pathway for the youngsters at these clubs? Is there even a pathway?”
Effectively, that pathway seemed like two years within the Metropolis academy groups earlier than present process a ‘loan map’ within the EFL. His first transfer was a really profitable one in League with Lincoln Metropolis, the place he labored underneath Michael Appleton. From the primary minute, he confirmed no worry.
“We were not the biggest team and I remember there were a couple of games where we were thinking about the opposition and who to pick up,” Appleton tells Sky Sports.
“And he just said, ‘Put me on their biggest player. I will do the job.’ He genuinely meant it. He had so much belief.”
Rogers played as a winger or No 10, with Brennan Johnson, on loan from Nottingham Forest at the time, on the other wing. Word got round in the third tier about Lincoln’s dynamic duo that were firing the club towards the top of the table.
When Barry-Murphy took his Rochdale team to Lincoln in March 2021, he had to come up with a plan to keep Rogers and Johnson.
“The two of them in League One were causing a lot of problems because of how direct and skilful they were in wide areas,” Barry-Murphy tells Sky Sports activities. “It wouldn’t have been the norm to come up against two young talents of that calibre.
“Essentially, our strategy on the day – and I remember it well – was to take them back towards their own goal as much as possible because every game that we had watched, they showed they were pretty lethal even at that age.”
It nearly labored. Rochdale managed to beat Lincoln that day 2-1 – however solely after Rogers levelled the sport at 1-1 within the second half, beating three gamers by driving on the Dale penalty space earlier than rifling a shot into the highest nook.
It was one among six targets Rogers scored for the League One outfit that season, firing Lincoln to the play-off remaining within the course of. However he and Lincoln ended up shedding to Blackpool at Wembley – and that disappointment could be the beginning of a few difficult years on the pitch.
