Southampton Reportedly Reject Opening Liverpool Offer for Roméo Lavia

An opening bid between £35-37M has been rejected but a deal might not be far away.

Liverpool have begun their push to sign 19-year-old holding midfielder Roméo Lavia from Southampton and have seen their opening bid—reportedly in the region of £35-37M—rejected by the relegated Saints but a compromise fee might not be far off. That’s the latest in the rapidly developing transfer story, with The Athletic’s David Ornstein claiming Southampton still value the player at closer to £50M while Belgian transfer guru Sacha Tavolieri hints at a potential compromise fee closer to Manchester City’s £40M buyback clause.

The City clause, set to go into effect next summer, helps to set a floor for Lavia—as does a reported 20% sell-on fee that would apply to any profit on his sale beyond the £14M paid for him last summer—but doesn’t necessarily give Southampton an unassailable position. Dropping down to the Championship means Saints likely need to make sales this summer, and there’s no guarantee City would come for the player in a year—especially if he stays at Southampton and spends the upcoming season jaded and playing in the second tier of English football.

If, as previously reported, Lavia wants to join Liverpool then a pathway to a deal appears to rapidly be taking shape, and given their needs at the position it seems likely that Liverpool would find a transfer fee in the region of £40M plus or minus a few add-ons palatable. Source: LFC Offside