EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea and Liverpool overtake Arsenal for Romeo Lavia

Steve Kay

• 27 Jun 2023 12:00 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea and Liverpool have overtaken Arsenal in the race to sign Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, FootballTransfers understands.

Arsenal had been favourites to buy the Belgian midfielder this summer, with the Gunners and manager Mikel Arteta huge admirers of the 19-year-old.

Arteta saw Lavia as the ideal replacement for Thomas Partey, should the former Atletico Madrid midfielder leave the club ahead of next season.

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The north London side have already held talks over signing Lavia and were believed to be well positioned to buy the player who is valued at around £40 million.

However, FootballTransfers has learned that Arsenal now risk losing out on Lavia to Liverpool or Chelsea.

The reason for this is because of the time it is taking to complete the signing of Declan Rice and the sale of Partey.

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Arsenal cannot and will not complete a move for Lavia until Rice and Partey’s deals are resolved.

The Gunners have had two official bids for Rice rejected by West Ham, with Man City now formally entering the race for the England international.

City had their own bid rejected this week, with Arsenal now set to return to make a third bid closer to West Ham’s £100m asking price.

All this has delayed Arsenal’s move for Lavia, who they cannot sign anyway until they offload Partey.

Southampton cannot wait on Lavia sale

And Southampton are not willing to wait for Arsenal on Lavia.

Following relegation to the Championship, Southampton are in a rush to complete sales before they can sign players themselves.

The southerners have an excess of players to move on, including Lavia. Southampton particularly need to sort the futures of James Ward-Prowse, Kyle Walker-Peters, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Che Adams, Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana.

Chelsea and Liverpool are in better positions to move for Lavia, meaning Arsenal now risk missing out on the midfielder.