Chelsea seek to hijack deal for Liverpool’s priority target with bid sent

Liverpool have been digging away at a deal for Southampton’s Romeo Lavia. As The Top Flight has reported, the Reds have had multiple bids rejected by Southampton as they have failed to reach the selling club’s valuation of £50m. Now, after long negotiations between the two clubs, Romeo Lavia may be ultimately heading somewhere else. Chelsea.

Chelsea seeks to hijack Romeo Lavia deal with bid tabled

First broken by Daily Echo’s Alfie House, Chelsea sent a bid Wednesday night to Southampton worth £48m for Romeo Lavia. The Athletic broke the exact numbers and say that the total package includes add-ons. It is, to date, the closest bid Southampton have received to their valuation. It is believed that talks between Chelsea and Southampton are ongoing.

Even if negotiations between Southampton and Liverpool were going slow, it felt as if the end result was always going to be Lavia ending up at Anfield. Things look very different now as Southampton will want to sell to the highest bidder and not necessarily Romeo’s preferred destination.

It will be interesting to see how keen Lavia would be on joining Chelsea, as it has been reported that the Belgian midfielder really wanted a move to Liverpool. Chelsea Director Joe Shields has a prior relationship with Romeo Lavia, having been a part of the recruitment process that brought the 19-year-old from Anderlecht to Manchester City’s academy.

Lavia is fully expected to leave this window from Southampton; it’s just a matter of who he will join. He was benched in Southampton’s Championship opener against Sheffield Wednesday and was not in the squad at all in their EFL Cup match against Gillingham. He is not the only midfielder Southampton are set to lose this window. James Ward-Prowse is set to join West Ham United with a bid of £30m accepted.