July 5, 2024

Liverpool have had three bids for Romeo Lavia rejected this summer.

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has raised concerns over his old club’s pursuit of Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia.

The 19-year-old has been a player of interest throughout the summer and with a matter of days until the Premier League season commences, the Reds are still at loggerheads with the Championship side.

Already Jurgen Klopp has had three approaches turned down for the south coast side, Southampton are standing firm on their £50m valuation of the midfielder.

Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai are two new faces through the door at Anfield this summer. However, Carragher is adamant that the problems that the German manager are facing date back to the summer of 2022.

“This [the problems] goes back to last summer, Liverpool didn’t buy a midfield player, so everyone in that core becomes another twelve months older,” he said speaking on The Overlap’s Fan Debate.

“Everyone’s talking this ones gone, that ones gone. It was right for them to go, it was right for James Milner to go, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, [Naby] Keita, and you’re getting offered massive money from Saudi Arabia for Fabinho and Jordan Henderson who looked like their legs had completely gone last season.

“Jordan Henderson’s 33, Fabinho you’re not quite sure. Because they didn’t get anyone last summer who was twenty-three or twenty-four, you end up in a situation with players that are old, coming to the end of their careers, some of them great players for Liverpool and you’re left with almost nothing there.

“They’ve won the lottery with the money they have received for these players, got them off the wage bill because it looked like at times last season that there was nothing left there. To be fair to Liverpool, in the transfer market in the last five or six years they’re clinical. Bang and it’s done, there’s no talk about something, it gets announced and done the next day.

“These transfers dragged on a bit – the Jordan Henderson and Fabinho deals dragged on for two or three weeks.”

Lavia made 29 appearances at St Mary’s last season in the Premier League, it was his first full senior campaign in the English top-flight after completing his move from Manchester City last summer.

Carragher raised his doubts over the thought of Lavia integrating into Klopp’s midfield and the conversation surrounding his lack of experience in the position.

Jürgen Klopp has a curious question as Liverpool weighs up $64m transfer move - Liverpool.com

The former Liverpool defender urged that they move for Brighton & Hove midfielder Moises Caicedo, who is attracting strong interest from Chelsea with his future uncertain at the Seagulls.

He continued: “My problem with bringing [Romeo] Lavia in is because people keep saying he’s too young to be the holding midfield player for Liverpool, to play all season in the Premier League, so you need to bring in someone else as well. How does that work? If you’re paying £50m or £60m for a 19-year-old kid to then go and pay £50m or £60m for someone who is 26, so what you’re basically saying is that in twelve months’ time, Romeo Lavia will be ready- what do you do with the other fella?

“Just get the proper player now – [Moises] Caicedo. You might think Caicedo is overpriced but Fabinho and [Jordan] Henderson were massively overpriced so they’ve won on that side, so you may have to pay a bit extra on the other side – just do it.”

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