Arsenal and Chelsea chasing shock midfield target, Fabrizio Romano reveals

Robin Bairner

• 10 May 2023 09:55 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal and Chelsea are both chasing midfielders in the summer transfer window, with the two Premier League clubs interested in many of the same players.

West Ham’s Declan Rice and Brighton’s Moises Caicedo, for example, appear on the shortlists of both clubs, but Fabrizio Romano has named a less-expected talent that the two London sides may end up fighting over.

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Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia has emerged as a player that several of the big Premier League sides are monitoring, with Romano revealing in his CaughtOffside column that Manchester City are also following the player who was once on their books.

City, Romano points out, have a buy-back option in the deal that took Lavia to the south coast for £10.5 million last summer, but this only comes into effect in the summer of 2024.

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Why Lavia is highly rated

The profile of Lavia is one that fits the recruitment aims of both Arsenal and Chelsea.

The Gunners are in need of an up-and-coming defensive midfielder given that their options in that area of the field – Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey and Jorginho will all be the wrong side of 30 by the time next season begins - while manager Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu both favour buying young players.

Similarly, Chelsea have operated with the aim of signing young players since Todd Boehly took control of the club last spring. The Blues may be restricted in terms of what they can do in the transfer market because of Financial Fair Play (FFP), and that could lead to them looking at a target like Lavia.

Data analytics experts SciSports show that Lavia’s game has developed rapidly having been given first-team exposure at Southampton and that he has the potential to become a first-team player at Arsenal or a key player at Chelsea.

It is unclear what type of money Southampton want for the Belgian teenager, but he has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of £18.5m (€21m) – a bargain price for the type of clubs looking at him.