Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia has chosen to join Chelsea instead of Liverpool according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein.
He will be joining at the same time as Moises Caicedo who also chose the London club rather than the Reds in what is a double whammy for Jurgen Klopp.
The German has lost two of his key midfield targets in a week and now the club is in a race against time to get a defensive midfielder in before the window shuts.
It seemed that Lavia was Liverpool’s priority after they had three bids rejected for the Belgium international but negotiations died down when they moved their focus onto Caicedo.
After they knew they were going to lose out on Caicedo Liverpool carried on their pursuit Lavia but Chelsea had already agreed a £50 million fee for him and he has chosen to join up with Mauricio Pochettino.
Chelsea and Southampton have good relations so the deal has been easy whilst personal issues won’t be a problem.
One of the main reasons why Lavia has chosen Chelsea is supposedly because they wanted him last summer however it was reported that Lavia was also keen on Liverpool due to the fact he would be a first-teamer.
At Chelsea though he is likely to behind Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in the pecking order.
Liverpool are still yet to replace Fabinho and Jordan Henderson who both left to join the Saudi Arabian league.
So as it stands they still have no natural defensive midfielder after the first Premier League game week.
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