Chelsea have agreed a deal worth £58million with Southampton for Romeo Lavia, talkSPORT understands.
The teenager appeared set to join Liverpool after a £60m deal between them and Saints was agreed, but Lavia has opted to join Chelsea instead.
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talkSPORT reported on Sunday how the Reds were expected to match Chelsea’s £55m offer to sign the 19-year-old.
But the Merseyside giants then tabled a higher bid than their Premier League rivals as Jurgen Klopp desperately looks to bring in another midfielder.
Southampton and Liverpool reached an agreement over Lavia after the Championship club knocked back three offers from the Anfield outfit.
Their previous offer of £45m was rejected earlier this month, which led to Jamie Carragher to tell them to walk away from their ’embarrassing’ pursuit of the player.
But despite a fee being agreed with the Saints, Lavia had not yet agreed personal terms with Liverpool and is now heading to Chelsea.
It is a very similar situation Liverpool encountered when they had a British-record £111m proposal accepted by Brighton for Moises Caicedo.
Caicedo ultimately snubbed a switch to Liverpool as he now closes in on joining the Blues.
Now, Lavia has chosen to play for Mauricio Pochettino over Jurgen Klopp.
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Southampton had been holding out for £50m for the teenager, but they are now set to pocket more than what they hoped for thanks to the bidding war.
Lavia only made the move to St Mary’s from Manchester City last summer for £14m, where he was one of their only bright sparks in what was an otherwise disastrous campaign.
The Athletic reports that City will receive 20 per cent of the profit for the sale of Lavia to Chelsea as a consequence of the sell-on clause inserted into the deal that took the Belgium international to the south coast.
He appeared in 35 games in all competitions last term, chipping in with a goal and an assist.
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