Chelsea retain interest in Belgian ace as Liverpool close in on summer deal

Liverpool are confident of signing Romeo Lavia despite firm interest from Chelsea

According to David Ornstein and James Pearce for The Athletic (subscription required), Chelsea retain a firm interest in Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia but Liverpool are confident of signing him soon.

Liverpool had their initial bid worth around £37m rejected by Southampton as they have a fixed asking price of £50m for the 19-year-old midfielder.

It seems as if the interest from Chelsea may have spurred the Reds to get this deal done before a concrete offer comes from the Blues. The west London club are late in this pursuit by the looks of things.

Earlier in the day, Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino was concerned by the midfield options he has and made it clear that the club must sign at least one midfielder in this summer window. They are pushing hard to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton, but it isn’t an easy deal to complete anymore. Both parties have reached an impasse as of now.

Chelsea should have been a bit more proactive in the market. Knowing that the Caicedo deal is tough to complete because Brighton are one of the hard nuts to crack, they could have done the groundwork on Lavia and immediately made a bid for him once the other deal became tedious.

But, here we are, hoping that Liverpool tank their pursuit of the Belgian international, leaving the door open for us to beat them to the punch. The Reds do not generally miss their target once it is locked in. So, the possibility of them dropping out is next to minimal.

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Chelsea have no choice but to keep pushing for the Caicedo deal. Whether it would happen on their terms is a major doubt now. They might have to accept what Brighton demand and get the Ecuador international here. The midfield signing is a must given the lack of experienced and quality options currently.