Southampton believe they will receive their asking price of £50m for Belgium midfielder Romeo Lavia, 19, with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all chasing his signature. (Sky Sports)
I do worry about him playing in a back 2 at his age, But with a RussBall style i could see that making the transition easier. In a back 3 though with Youth around him, and pace i'd reckon he'd thrive. Leader, Legend. Bring him Back.
Well Saints will never accept that. - To the club they could spend similar for a player that they wouldn't really know what they'd be getting.
If he had only 1 year remaining on his contract, maybe, but I can't imagine we'd even entertain a figure that low unless there was a player coming the other way as well. We got burnt letting Romeu go for 'sentimental', 'he's served us well' reasons. I can't see us making the same mistake with the club captain. Pay up or shut up!
I think the reality is that we can expect to lose (that we care about) the players that have a chance to represent their countries in the Euros. Hence it’ll be bye bye to - JWP ABK Lavia KWP (the lack of any concrete interest in Kyle so far seems odd?) Che (though in the case of the Scottish team, I don’t think he’d need to play in the top leagues, so that’s not a definite). The others that we’d like to keep - Tino, Charly, Sulemana, Edozie - we should fight tooth and nail to retain, and unless they’re throwing toys out of the pram left, right and centre, we should retain them. That gives me a fair amount of confidence for the season (presuming we can keep them), rather than the doom and gloom outlook that Ian was presenting earlier, and I don’t see it as out of the question in the slightest.
This is one situation where we are better off under SR than Gao. Under Gao we would have sold for anything to get some money in. We don’t have to sell off cheap. Still think it is 90% he’ll leave, but there is 10% of hope. We know what that does.
Barring a multitude of other England midfielder injuries or massive loss of form, I don't see JWP as anywhere close to the Euros with England. He'd have to pull of a masterful season in the PL wherever he goes to get back into the fold. Ahead of him are Bellingham, Rice, Mount, Phillips, Henderson, Gallagher, Eze and now even TAA playing in the middle. Although it might be a very slim chance, I could actually see him staying and knuckling down if a reasonable offer wasn't forthcoming. He's just not the type to throw his toys out of the pram. Also, come January, there would teams that would pay over the odds to bring him to help stave off relegation or whatever.
