Chelsea are desperate to bolster their midfield this summer after losing a lot of experience in one transfer window. The West London outfit have tried to course-correct after spending big last season, selling Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and N’Golo Kante while releasing Tiemoué Bakayoko. Jorginho was sold in January and Denis Zakaria left after his loan deal too.
This has left a void to fill, however, so the Blues pursued Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion after his fantastic season in 2022/23. The Seagulls repeatedly turning down bids, however, so Chelsea turned their attention to Romeo Lavia. And David Ornstein of The Athletic has revealed a bid made by the Blues for the Southampton star just shy of his asking price.
Lavia is valued at £50m and Chelsea are believed to have offered £48m, so they’re currently leading the race for his signature – Liverpool’s last bid of £46m was turned down. The 19-year-old is expected to leave Southampton following their relegation to the Championship, but the Saints have made it clear that they want no less than £50m.
After Chelsea’s midfield exodus, Pochettino has been left with Conor Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez, Carney Chukwuemeka, Lesley Ugochukwu and Andrey Santos, none of whom are above the age of 23.
Chelsea sold one of the Premier League’s best-ever ball-winners in Kante and a brilliant box-to-box talent in Kovacic, so Lavia would have big shoes to fill. His numbers from last season are impressive, however, with the Belgian international boasting more tackles per game (2.0) than Mount (1.4), Gallagher (1.3), Zakaria (1.3) and Chukwuemeka (0.9), so Lavia would be an improvement on the current crop.
The 19-year-old averaged more interceptions per game (1.1) than every Blues midfielder too, so its easy to see why Chelsea want him. Time will tell if Brighton accept their offer, however, as they turned down £46m from Liverpool and have requested more than the £48m from Chelsea. But Lavia will surely want to return to the Premier League, so he might be pushing the Saints to accept.
