Southampton rejected a £50million offer from Chelsea for Romeo Lavia in the summer transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Lavia only signed for the Saints in July, joining from Manchester City for a reported £12m.
He has been very impressive in his brief time on the south coast.
The 18-year-old had not missed a Premier League minute for Southampton until he sustained an injury during Wednesday’s win against Chelsea.
This is a huge blow for the player and club, especially after he netted his first goal for the Saints against Thomas Tuchel’s side during the week.
Ralph Hasenhuttl confirmed after the result that Lavia is expected to miss around six weeks of action.
Southampton made some very good signings in the summer window, signing several hidden gems, such as Lavia, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Sekou Mara.
Bella-Kotchap and Lavia already look destined to move to one of the Big Six clubs in the Premier League.
And it has been revealed that one of the big boys actually tried to sign the latter in the summer window.
Despite the fact Lavia only joined Southampton two months ago, Chelsea lodged a huge £50m bid to sign the Belgian defensive midfielder, claims Fabrizio Romano.
The Italian transfer guru has said the Saints flat out rejected the offer and see the teenager as an ‘untouchable’ player.
Romano also revealed that Manchester City have a £40m buy-back clause.
He wrote on Twitter: “Behind the scenes. Chelsea wanted to sign Romeo Lavia on Deadline Day with £50m verbal proposal rejected by Southampton — of course, he’s untouchable.
“Southampton invested £12m plus add-ons for Lavia — and Man City have £40m buy back clause.”
There were murmurs on deadline day that Chelsea had lodged a huge bid for a mystery midfielder and it appears that Lavia was the player in question.
The Blues had also shown an interest in Edson Alvarez – who was demanding Ajax sell him to the Premier League club.
Chelsea brought in Denis Zakaria from Juventus in the end.
The Switzerland international joined on loan for the season, though the Blues have the option to make his move permanent.
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