Chelsea beat Liverpool with £48m bid for Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia

Chelsea have made a move to sign Romeo Lavia ahead of Liverpool (Getty)

Chelsea have submitted a £48 million bid for Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, according to reports.

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Liverpool have made the 19-year-old one of their priority targets for the summer transfer window but have seen multiple bids rejected by Southampton.

Their latest offer of £45m was turned down by Southampton this week, with the Championship club holding out for a £50m transfer fee.

Chelsea, meanwhile, are also looking to bolster their midfield options this summer and have prioritised a deal for Brighton’s Moises Caicedo.

But according to The Athletic, Chelsea have now tabled a £48m bid to sign Lavia ahead of Liverpool.

The report claims that Chelsea’s offer includes add-ons and talks were ongoing as of Wednesday evening when the bid was submitted.

Southampton are demanding a £50m fee for Romeo Lavia (Getty)

Lavia was was left out of Southampton’s squad for their 3-1 defeat to Gillingham in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening.

Speaking after his side’s loss, Southampton boss Russell Martin suggested that Lavia would still be at the club by the end of the week.

‘I don’t envisage anything changes before now and the weekend but it’s football, right, so anything can happen,’ Martin told the BBC.

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‘We will be prepared for everything and anything and the guys we left behind today is not our lack of respect for the competition.

‘We need to see everyone on the pitch at some point because we might need people. Some people who think might go might end up staying, some people who we think might stay might end up going.’

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