Southampton midfielder Roméo Lavia might well have played his final game for the south coast side a year after moving there from Manchester City — but it remains to be seen what his next club will be
Liverpool and Chelsea are battling for Lavia’s signature alongside the chase for Moisés Caicedo and Belgian journalist Sacha Tovalieri has provided an update on Twitter.
He says that Chelsea’s offer, worth $70m (£55m/€64m), has been accepted by Southampton, but Liverpool is set to ‘level up’ its bid for Lavia — leaving the player with the choice of where he wants to go.
Liverpool, the reporter says, is ‘back in the race’, though whether it had ever exited the race can be questioned. Whoever does not get Caicedo should probably end up with Lavia, but Chelsea is hoping to get both moves over the line.
The Daily Mail reports that Lavia is ‘set’ to move to Chelsea and Fabrizio Romano has broken the news this evening that Caicedo’s move to Stamford Bridge is now all agreed.
Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp has been asked about transfers and the latest after a couple of days in which it looked like the Reds might beat Chelsea to a British record deal for Caicedo.
“We have to qualify for the Champions League, that’s it,” said the Reds boss, in an interview with Sky Sports. “The earlier you can do that, the more likely you can go for more. I cannot say that at the moment but that must be our target, there is no doubt about that. It’s not only reputation-wise but also a financial need, to be honest.”
In a separate clip, Klopp added: “It is not news that we are looking for that position (holding midfield) and it is clear that would be great if we could do something. We can play with a double six, a double pivot, and we can do both, and Stefan (Bajčetić) is coming back. He played exceptionally well and Curtis (Jones) — we have options. We have options but it would be absolutely great if we could (sign another midfielder).”
