Liverpool are ready to match Chelsea’s offer for Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, 90min understands, with the transfer battle between the Premier League giants continuing.
The two clubs have already been at war over Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo in recent days. Chelsea have been pursuing the Ecuador international for months, but it was Liverpool who first agreed a deal with Brighton for a British record fee of £111m on Friday.
Even then, it remained Caicedo’s preference to join Chelsea and the Blues, who had not previously offered more than £80m, refused to throw in the towel. As it stands, Chelsea are now confident of finalising an agreement with Brighton in excess of the Liverpool offer already accepted.
But Caicedo wasn’t the only player that Chelsea looked set to beat Jurgen Klopp’s team to.
READ MORE FROM 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS TEAM
Liverpool, in need of midfielders after letting Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all leave this summer, had earlier seen three bids for Lavia rejected by Southampton – they have been holding out for £50m, with Liverpool’s best offer totalling £45m.
Suddenly, Chelsea came on the scene and submitted a £48m bid for Lavia. It is still short of the asking price, but Southampton are understandably confident of getting the £50m they want.
90min now understands that Liverpool are ready to make a fourth Lavia offer that matches Chelsea’s bid for the 19-year-old Belgian, who has played only 36 senior club games in his career.
As far as Southampton are concerned, they are happy with the developments and keen to see how this bidding war between Chelsea and Liverpool plays out. Lavia, meanwhile, is yet to make known his preference one way or the other, having held positive talks with both clubs.
LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS PODCAST
On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth, Graeme Bailey and Sean Walsh to discuss the ever-changing Moises Caicedo saga, Harry Kane's move to Bayern Munich and more!
If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
This article was originally published on 90min as Liverpool prepared to match Chelsea offer for Romeo Lavia.