Southampton turned down a £ 50 million offer from Chelsea for Romeo Lavia during the summer transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano. Lavia only signed for Southampton in July, joining from Manchester City for a reported £12m. He has been very impressive in his brief time on the team. The 18-year-old had not missed a Premier League minute for Southampton until he got injured during Wednesday’s win against Chelsea. This is a huge blow for the player and club, especially after he scored his first goal for the Saints against Thomas Tuchel’s side during the week.
Southampton Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl confirmed after the result that Lavia is set to miss around six weeks of action. Saints denied the proposal on the same day they made four signings of their own, while City has retained a buy-back option on the youngster.
“I just came to kind of get experience and I’m getting the chance, I’m trying to give it back to the manager because he trusts me, so from my side I have to prove the manager is correct,” Lavia was quoted as saying by Daily Echo in a recent interview.
Lavia could make a return from injury in mid-October, with Saints playing for a further month before the five-week international break due to the winter World Cup. Southampton made some remarkable signings in the summer window, signing several hidden gems, such as Lavia, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Sekou Mara.
Bella-Kotchap and Lavia already look set to move to one of the Big Six clubs in the Premier League. The talent of Lavia has been recognized in the market with Chelsea making a huge bid for the youngster. Despite the fact that Lavia only joined Southampton two months ago, Chelsea lodged a huge £50m bid to sign the Belgian defensive midfielder, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Italian transfer guru has said that the Saints flat out rejected the offer and see the teenager as an ‘untouchable’ player. Romano also revealed that Manchester City have a £40m buy-back clause.
Romano took to Twitter and wrote, “Behind the scenes. Chelsea wanted to sign Romeo Lavia on Deadline Day with £50m verbal proposal rejected by Southampton — of course, he’s untouchable. Southampton invested £12m plus add-ons for Lavia — and Man City have £40m buy back clause.”
There were widespread rumours on deadline day that Chelsea had lodged a huge bid for a mystery midfielder and now it has been made clear that the player in question was Lavia.
