Chelsea 'willing to massively overpay' for £50m star at Stamford Bridge

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.

The reigning Premier League champions were reportedly reluctant to sanction the 18-year-old’s exit, but Southampton ended up beating Leeds United to his signature.

Jones understands that Chelsea have already been impressed by Lavia during the early stages of his Southampton career and, as a result, were willing to pay over the odds as the transfer deadline neared.

The journalist is unsure as to whether the Blues will return to St Mary’s with a fresh bid when the winter window opens for business in January.

Jones told GIVEMESPORT: “They’ve obviously seen something they like. They were willing to massively overpay for him and take a gamble that he is the real deal.

“We’ll see if he stays on their radar for the next window.”

Lavia has