Chelsea were willing to ‘take a gamble’ and ‘massively overpay’ for Romeo Lavia as they looked to lure the Southampton man to Stamford Bridge late in the summer window, according to transfer insider Dean Jones. Blues owner Todd Boehly spent more than £250million on bolstering the squad ahead of last week’s deadline, but Lavia was not among those to seal a switch to west London.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Chelsea failed with a £50million bid to sign Lavia as Southampton consider him to be one of the leading midfield talents.
It is understood that Saints also opted to turn down the deadline day proposal as they had no time to secure a replacement. Chelsea’s interest came after Lavia, a one-cap Belgium under-21 international, had only joined his current employers a matter of months ago.
Southampton swooped for the defensive midfielder and forked out £14million in July, while the deal also includes a £40million buyback clause which Manchester City can take advantage of.