Romeo Lavia’s name was rarely far from the headlines during the summer of 2023, but he’s since been in danger of becoming something of a forgotten man.
Liverpool had multiple bids rejected for the then-Southampton midfielder after their relegation from the Premier League, and ultimately it was Chelsea who won the transfer race for the young Belgian, snapping him up in a £58m deal (BBC Sport).
However, persistent injury problems restricted the 20-year-old to a solitary 32-minute appearance in his first year at Stamford Bridge, although he’s featured abundantly for the Blues in pre-season in recent weeks.
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Lavia has now opened up on his decision to move to Stamford Bridge a year ago in an interview with The Athletic, taking an indiscreet swipe over some of the reporting around the transfer.
The midfielder said: “You’ve never had my version. It’s all about what you read in the media. I had to read a couple as well and sometimes you knew more than me, apparently!
“Listen, when I heard about Chelsea and it was from a long time ago before everything started, it was a no-brainer. Some stuff I was reading, I’m not going to say it was fake, but my decision was Chelsea. The interest from Liverpool was there but, in my head, I wanted to play for Chelsea.”
That Liverpool were willing to pay £46m for Lavia (the value of the third and final bid that Southampton rejected) despite him playing just 36 senior games at that point illustrates just how highly he was regarded at Anfield, and how desperately we needed a defensive midfielder 12 months ago (and still do now).
The injury anguish that the Belgian has endured ever since his move to Chelsea is something we wouldn’t wish on any player and has led to an unfair billing of him as an expensive flop in some quarters, although LFC chiefs might now be relieved that they didn’t splash out for the 20-year-old.
The subsequent acquisitions of Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch demonstrated that the Reds swiftly moved on from losing out on the ex-Saints prodigy, and if his preference all along was to sign for the west Londoners, then we were always onto a losing horse by pursuing him.
It just wasn’t meant to be for Lavia and Liverpool, and even in our need for another number 6 after the failed pursuit of Martin Zubimendi, the Belgium international won’t be coming to Anfield any time soon.
After the horrendous year that he endured, we hope that his injury woes are now behind him and that he can make up for lost time…just as long as it’s not at LFC’s expense when we take on Chelsea!
