Chelsea negotiating for Romeo Lavia transfer to take Todd Boehly’s spending past £900m

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Chelsea are negotiating a fee of £50m with add-ons for Romeo Lavia, after the midfielder signalled his intention to leave Southampton for Stamford Bridge rather than Liverpool.

The Anfield club had earlier on Monday had a £60m bid accepted for the 19-year-old and, while he was interested in going north, moving to London has proved a more favourable option. There was some frustration given that it was felt Liverpool could have had a deal done last week, but Southampton absolutely refused to drop their asking price from £50m, in what has proved a seller’s market.

The signing will take Chelsea’s expenditure to over £900m gross since the takeover in May 2022, and raised questions over how they will meet Financial Fair Play requirements.

While the spending has inevitably been the subject of a lot of discussion at the top levels of clubs, just as it has been in the wider game, there has been no contact with the Premier League about it. Chelsea are likely to still have a number of outgoings in the two weeks left of the window – although that does raise the issue of clubs knowing they need to sell.

The Premier League are expected to change their rules to bring them in line with Uefa’s, closing a loophole that allows transfer fees to be spread over a longer-period and setting a limit at five years, but that will not affect the last year’s spending. The regulations are also dependent on the year-end date for signings and which year the transactions go into.

Chelsea completed the signing of Moises Caicedo for an initial £100m from Brighton earlier on Monday.