The latest name to add to our list of midfield targets is Southampton’s Romeo Lavia.
The 19 year old joined the Saints from Man City last summer, and despite impressing during the season, ended up being relegated to the Championship.
According to The Guardian, Arsenal have turned their sights to the midfielder as Brighton look for an astronomical fee for Moises Caicedo – the player we tried to buy in January.
It’s reported that Brighton owner Tony Bloom has set a price of more than £100m for the Ecuadorian, and with the Gunners set to spend that much on Declan Rice, it makes splashing that amount on another midfielder very unlikely.
Lavia made 29 Premier League appearances for Southampton last season, and made his full debut for Belgium back in March. He wouldn’t be quite as ‘oven ready’ as Caicedo, but if he had a season under his belt learning with some of the club’s more experienced midfielders, he could develop very quickly.
Man City – who sold Lavia to Southampton last summer – do hold a buy-back clause, but look to be targeting more experience in the shape of Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic, as well as holding an interest in Declan Rice too.
All I know is that Edu and Arteta knows!.
Yep if we want to sign him he probably won’t be shit
If it was a choice between Caicedo and selling Tom or this, I take this.
Any Romeo will know where the labia is.
For some reason whenever I hear his name I always think of labia
Let’s hope Mikel knows how to flick the bean.
what a terrible day to be literate
Why are going after all these Joe Willock after selling the real one?
👍 🍺 😂
That’s fucking bollocks, but you get a beer and a thumbs up for genuinely making me laugh and cheering me up.
Arteta knows the players he wants – the ones Edu can’t deliver.
Our first offer will be rejected. That’s how it works.
If you have bought a car, have you ever just walked into the dealership and paid the asking price?
And he’s 19 until … never mind, I’ll get my coat.
If it is, I’m going to fucking lose it.
But if we overpay I’ll be livid.
It’ll be rejected until it’s accepted. That’s how it works.
Are you changing your name?
Haha!
I love that I wait a day to listen to a podcast and by that time it’s completely obsolete.
Arteta throwing some curve balls this summer.
I like it!
Kinda mad that £45m gets you TP three seasons ago. And this summer it’s a bargain youngster from a relegated side.
Why does the money have to go crazy just as we get rich?!
I think it would be easier to talk about players that we have not been linked to.
Lavia is an excellent young player and a key point missed is that the buy-back clause is not activated until next summer.
He played us off the park at the Emirates but he’s looked very raw in some of the other games I’ve watched him play. Some of his decision making is very 19 year old and you can see the obvious lack of experience. He’s definitely got potential but it really depends on how coachable he is.
I agree and I’m not sure how he improves us this season. Obviously I hope he’s a world beater and not Lokonga Mark 2. But if we’re selling Xhaka (I wouldn’t) then I think we need two ‘top, top’ midfielders to actually improve. If Rice replaces Xhaka say, and we buy this kid, then where is vital the upgrade to our midfield?
Rice over Xhaka is an upgrade isn’t it?
In age profile yes.
Only an upgrade in age (and mobility, technical ability, tackling…)
I’m just hoping signs so we can get the headline “Romeo Done”
Unfortunately, we can’t sign him for “two multiplied by ten, plus one” Pounds Sterling.
Very logical.
I think I’d prefer this signing to the Caicedo one. Think he’s good enough to be a rotation option for us alreadu, ahead of Jorginho and Elneny. Great athelticism and energy and smooth technically. Reminds me of Camavinga a bit
Only worry is Man City tactically screwing us over with the buy back clause they no doubt have in place. Hopefully we can convince him if they really want him they wouldn’t have let him go just 12 months ago, and he’ll probably end up like Phillips if he returns
Lavia will get Elneny’s and Sambi’s minutes. Not sure if he’ll bite given that he may have other Prem options. He’s already left City to play regularly.
It only seems to be big clubs linked to him at the moment, where his playing time would likely be the same. So it depends more on his ambition at this stage. I hope he signs. Great potential.
So far, the transfer targets this window are collectively underwhelming considering where we are aiming to go next season. More than 100m for Declan Rice seems a massive overspend, bordering on madness when you see Jude Bellingham go for 88m to Madrid. Rice is a great player but is he the centerpiece of a CL winning or Premier League winning club? I am not convinced. Bellingham is and he’s going for what – 20m less than Rice. Due to his versatility (he can play every position Rice does plus right back) I would have preferred Caicedo for sure, but his… Read more »
I’m with you on the Bellingham vs Rice fee, but you can bet it would be over £100m for Jude if we were in the running. Everyone knows EPL clubs have money.
Havertz is quite concerning, as I’d prefer another dedicated centre forward at the price. I certainly hate the idea of filling Chelsea’s bank account when we sell our players so cheaply.
When the player has a preference, deals tend to be done quickly.
Guess Rice would determine to challenge the Europa Trophy instead?!
Right now, Rice is much the better player than Enzo Fernandez. Enzo may have a huge upside but often looks overmatched in the Premier League. Never judge a midfielder by how he looks when his entire job is to get the ball to Messi; on the other hand, it’s also hard to judge a player when he is part of the Chelsea shambles.
“Never judge a midfielder by how he looks when his entire job is to get the ball to Messi”
Sergio Busquets’ entire career eviscerated!
Oh, I dunno. Busquets also had that “chop some poor bastard off the ball” thing going as well, so a more rounded player overall.
And some much as blow on him and he threw himself to the ground!
Bellingham is one of the hottest properties in Europe this year. Don’t be fooled by the reported cost.. he will be on 300k plus bonuses and rising wages each year.. the add ons that bring it up another 30mill euro are also very achievable by Real., I seen an interesting video the other day about total cost and packages that puts us about 5th in transfers and wages since prem started, even liverpool are still ahead of us on spend in the last 10years even though they keep going on about there amazing net spend.. Man City were hailed for… Read more »
Spend Caicedo money on this younger and fitter version of Thomas Partey. That would be a real Party indeed
Edu and Co are playing a blinder this transfer window. The only thing certain is our firm interest in Rice but everything else seems like smoke and mirrors. We could be really in for Caicedo and this could all be a cover, or maybe it’s a double bluff and we genuinely wanted Latvia all along. Maybe we’re messing with Chelsea after what went down in the winter, either driving the Caicedo price up or waiting to snatch him right at the death. I love how we’re playing this, players finally are desperate to join us and we’re finally in firm… Read more »
Man, you have excellent analytical and articulating skills. Write more and often.
Grammar twat. Go back to marking your year 4 papers and leave EB to express himself.
I doubt that Latvia is for sale though (but Vlad Putin may have other ideas!).
If Latvia were for sell, looking at the state of the Russian economy I doubt Putin could even afford an Aukstā Gaļa.
Sorry but you are very incorrect – compared to us in the UK, Russia is the new Man City. Sanctions as effective as AFC’s selling ability!
Maybe, but we should go for it nonetheless. Imagine pairing it with a deep sitting Lithuania, and adding Estonia up top. What a spine that would be!
Good one! Baltic tiger!
Arsenal are remaining tight-lipped on this one!! See what I did? 😉
Best one so far
I just don’t see it with Caicedo. He looks like another Fred to me – pretty mobile, busy and robust but hardly Kante level, and just a bit too imprecise with his touch, passing and decision making. A useful squad player for a CL team but not for £50m+. In other words he’s the exact kind of player Chelsea would blow £80m on Lavia has similar mobility, work rate, strength/balance etc, but at his age has more potential to develop athletically into a properly formidable ball winner. He’s also the more natural playmaker, excellent vision and range of passing and… Read more »
Potential is all very well, but it’s no good to us in this window.
We need top drawer players now to bolster the squad and hit the ground running in the ECL and the EPL.
No more Lokongas.
Personally I just don’t think Caicedo is that top drawer player though, useful but not someone who’d really move the dial for us. Lavia is already way ahead of Lokonga, he has some flaws with his defensive positioning, but nothing that can’t be taught fairly quickly Caicedo as well has had the benefit of playing in a very well organised team. Whereas Lavia, in his first senior season at 18/19 played in the worst team in the league, under 3 different coaches, and emerged as one of their only good and reliable players. That shows talent, adaptability and mental strength… Read more »
Less than a week into the transfer window and the big names that we were linked with (Ornstein: “Arsenal are in for Rice and Caicedo and want the deals done quickly”) are already dust – and we’re now scratching and scrambling around for plan b. The trouble is, we’re not (supposedly) going for plan b trophies next season. Just let that one sink in…. No disrespect to this lad, I’m sure he’s a good player, but he’s not Moises Caicedo – end of. As for who’ll we try for when the Rice debacle finally reaches its conclusion (he’s going to… Read more »
One for the future