Liverpool tactics left Romeo Lavia ‘bemused’ with PSV and Fulham stars now eyed upsigned yet
Romeo Lavia looks set to join Chelsea from Southampton after reportedly becoming ‘
Southampton boss confirms £58m deal agreed with Chelsea for Lavia but player has not bemused’ with Liverpool.
On Tuesday evening, Chelsea agreed a fee of £53m plus £5m in add-ons for the 19-year-old.
The Reds made at least three offers for Lavia over the last few weeks, which peaked at around £45m. Southampton director of football Jason Wilcox has even confirmed that his club did accept a bid from Liverpool for midfielder Romeo Lavia. But Jurgen Klopp’s side took a slow approach to negotiations with the Championship side.
Their tactics seem to have backfired and allowed Chelsea to swoop in. The Guardian reported that sources in Lavia’s camp ‘expressed bemusement’ over Liverpool’s behaviour.
Liverpool’s £100m offer for Caicedo came somewhat out of the blue, after they had already been chasing Lavia.
This left the Southampton midfielder to feel like their ‘second choice’.
What has been said
Southampton director of football Jason Wilcox revealed on Tuesday night that the club were making progress in the sale of Lavia. He said: “I think you know, it’s well known that we’ve had some significant interest in Romeo, we’ve had an offer which we accepted from Liverpool.
“Then Chelsea came to the table. So we’re currently in negotiation with Chelsea now so it’s a real tricky period for Romeo. But I’m confident that something will get done in the next week or so or in the next few days.”
Since Caicedo’s record-breaking move, Chelsea made a little dig at their rivals by using the caption “It’s only ever been Chelsea” on social media.
The former Brighton man enthused: “I am so excited to be here at this big club and I didn’t have to think twice when Chelsea called me, I just knew I wanted to sign for the club.”
What happens next
Romeo Lavia looks poised to follow in the footsteps of Moises Caicedo by rejecting Liverpool in favour of joining Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
This leaves Liverpool in desperate need of reinforcements in central midfield after losing captain Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Pro League.
Liverpool are interested in PSV Eindhoven midfielder Ibrahim Sangare, according to Kiki Musampa.
The 46-year-old, brother of Sangare’s agent, has claimed that the Reds are among three elite European clubs chasing the French-Ivorian. Nottingham Forest were previously interested in the 25-year-old but failed to meet the financial demands of the Eredivisie side.
Musampa said: “There are big clubs that are interested, such as Bayern Munich. Ibrahim is also on the list at Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool, but he is not yet a priority there. Nottingham Forest had already made an offer, but that was not enough.”
Ready-made Fabinho replacement could still be signed
If Joao Palhinha could be prised away from Fulham for a relatively low-risk fee – the London club is said to want £60m – and then partnered alongside a longer-term replacement and understudy, like Fluminense’s Andre Trindade, this could well be a deal worth trying to pull off, and could help Klopp forget about the memory of missing out on Caicedo and Lavia.
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Liverpool chased Southampton’s Roméo Lavia for most of the summer window and even saw a few of their bids turned down by the Championship side.
The 19-year-old initially wanted a move to Liverpool and Sacha Tavolieri took to Twitter to explain the reason behind him having a change of heart.
Sources close to the midfielder feel Jürgen Klopp’s side ‘played with him’, which is why he has opted to join Chelsea.
Tavolieri claims ‘he was there, waiting’ to join Liverpool initially. The Belgium international realised he wasn’t the absolute priority for the Merseyside club, who were also seeking out other options when negotiating with him.
Moisés Caicedo was among them and he snubbed Liverpool for Chelsea. Lavia is now set to follow him to reject the Reds in favour of Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
The journalist adds the Blues maintained the same stance since they registered interest in the Southampton player and it’s now helping them to beat Liverpool in the transfer race.
