Romeo Lavia for £58m is an absolute bargain - Chelsea won't regret stealing him away from Liverpool

Born in January 2004, Lavia started his career at Anderlecht before being snapped up by Manchester City's world-leading academy aged 16 in 2020. A host of other Premier League clubs had been interested at the time, but the Cityzens' pull proved too enticing.

Lavia's decision proved to be an inspired one as he soon started turning heads at the club. Operating in a defensive midfield role - he'd previously been a centre-back - the Belgian was part of the City development side that romped to the Premier League 2 title in 2021 and 2022. He was rewarded with a pair of first-team appearances in cup competitions during the 2021-22 campaign.

Summer 2022 would spell the end of Lavia's promising career at the Etihad, however. Along with Juan Larios, Samuel Edozie and Gavin Bazunu, he was part of the mass exodus of City's young guns to Southampton.

This was Lavia's chance to craft his own Premier League legacy. And while things did not go entirely to plan, he grasped the opportunity to shine with both hands.

Southampton's approach in the transfer market was bold and it soon became clear that not all of the youngsters they'd recruited were equipped for the rigours of Premier League football. Lavia, though, took to his new responsibilities like a duck to water, barely missing a game when he was fit throughout the entire season.

His near ever-presence is made all the more impressive when you consider the player he was tasked with replacing: Oriol Romeu. Jibes have been aimed at Barcelona since their decision to sign him this summer, but Romeu has nearly 200 Premier League appearances to his name and rarely put a foot wrong when he pulled on a Saints' shirt.

Even while carrying this extra pressure, Lavia looked completely uninhibited during his early Southampton career, expressing himself while providing his side with a much-needed layer of defensive protection.

Speak to any regular St Mary's goer and they would not point the finger at Lavia for the club's untimely relegation. Even with James Ward-Prowse netting nine goals from midfield, the starlet still earned the Daily Echo's Player of the Season gong. The official award was skipped by the club for obvious reasons.

So, what is it that makes Lavia such an exciting talent? Perhaps the most impressive string to his bow is his staggering composure. Despite his tender years, Lavia is capable of making everything look so effortless.

Even when he is under intense pressure, the clarity of his thought does not diminish. As The Analyst pointed out recently, Lavia was pressured more times than any other Southampton player last season (18.8 pressures per 90 minutes), but he still managed to register a higher pass completion rate (86.2%) than any of his team-mates.

Delve into the stats a little deeper and Lavia's unflappable nature is even more evident. While being pressured last season, he averaged a pass completion rate of 79%. These numbers are comparable with what Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Thiago Alcantara achieved, two of the best-established deep-lying midfielders in the Premier League.

The term 'press-resistant' has become a bit of a tactical buzzword recently - but it describes Lavia perfectly. He is equipped with a potent arsenal of body feints, dummies and tricks that make him extremely difficult to dispossess.

Last season, he also established a 'signature move' of sorts. During build-up, Southampton's centre-backs would split, with Bazunu often starting proceedings by rolling the ball to Lavia. If someone was bold enough to try and nick it off him, he would simply scan his surroundings, drop his shoulder and leave his marker floundering.

It's something he worked on obsessively during his time with then-City coach and now Leicester boss Enzo Maresca, as he revealed in an interview with GOALback in 2021. "I really enjoy recovering the ball and pass through the lines," he said. "Enzo's helped me a lot with that, always being on the half-turn so I can see the game going forward, so it’s not a problem now. I know that I’ve got my qualities, but if I do something wrong they help me."

Finding a defensive midfielder with this appetite for retaining possession has been one of the key conundrums for England's top sides recently; this is why Rodri and Declan Rice cost so much. However, stick Lavia in the right environment and there's no reason why he can't match or surpass the pair, both of whom of among the best players in their role in world football.

Lavia is not all about elegant passes, though. He'd also have no problem channeling the great Chelsea midfielders of yesteryear by getting stuck in. Just five players aged 20 or younger in Europe's top-five leagues completed more tackles than Lavia last season, and only two (Jude Bellingham and Salernitana's Lorenzo Pirola) managed more blocks.

Lavia particularly excels at one-on-one defending and it's rare to see a player dribble past him if he's facing them up. And while he can be a bit sloppier when he has to retreat, due to his mixed slide tackle success, it's not so much of a flaw as to prevent him becoming an elite defensive midfielder.

His interception numbers are also not quite as impressive as his tackles and blocks. This is an area he is likely to improve upon as he gets more experience, following a trend of others in his position.

The biggest thing that makes Lavia stick out from other players or a similar position and age profile is his ability to carry the ball. This is something that took Rice several seasons of regular Premier League football to master, but Lavia has had no such inhibitions.

He is confident progressing the ball himself if a pass is not on. Only two Saints players managed more carries than him last season, Ward-Prowse and flying full-back Kyle Walker-Peters, while Lavia's total carrying distance was higher than Rodri's.

Getting on the ball this much speaks to his supreme confidence and bravery; mental traits that will equip him with a good chance of taking his game to the next level at Stamford Bridge.

As with any young player though, Lavia is not the finished article. One area of concern is his slightly underwhelming progressive passing. He is extremely comfortable keeping the ball circulating in midfield and Lavia also has a short-ish switch to the wide areas in his repertoire. But the type of Hollywood passes Chelsea are used to seeing from the likes of Thiago Silva cannot realistically be expected on a consistent basis - at least not yet.

It is also hard to give a considered judgement on how helpful he would be in the final third. If he gets a move to a Big Six side, he will come up against a lot of teams looking to starve his team's forwards of space by deploying a low block. In these situations, having a defensive midfielder capable of spotting an incisive pass is key, and there are one or two doubts over whether Lavia has that creative spark in his locker.

There are encouraging signs, though. He was heavily involved in Southampton's build-up for the majority of the season, even if it rarely resulted in the net bulging due to his side's offensive frailties and tactical issues.

In that same GOAL interview, Lavia revealed he was looking to model himself of then-City team-mate Fernandinho. "Fernandinho knows what he’s doing - he doesn’t run just to run. He’s like the brain of the team. When you’re young you want to run - left, right - but he knows what he’s doing so he won’t run as much, but will still be effective. That’s something I keep learning from him," he said.

It's a lofty ambition: replicating one of the best defensive midfielders of the Premier League era. But those who have worked with him closely seem to think he's got the potential to go right to the top.

"He [Lavia] is very good. He's been training with us since the end of last year. If he continues his development, I think he'll be a top player," Kevin De Bruyne said during the pair's time together at City.

More recently, Pep Guardiola was even more effusive in his praise. "I am really impressed with what Romeo has done and is doing," he beamed. "We had, and we have, an incredible opinion about him. We thought to keep him, but maybe he would not (get) enough minutes like he has in Southampton."

Clearly then, Guardiola has been a big admirer of Lavia for some time. And that goes a long way to explaining why City insisted inserting a buy-back clause into the deal that sent him to Southampton last summer.

The Cityzens are able to re-sign the midfielder for £40m ($51.7m) - but there's a catch. The clause does not become active until next summer. City haven't got many things wrong in the transfer market - financial charges pending, of course - but opening the door for Lavia to join one of their Premier League rivals seems like a rare error.

Kalvin Phillips is still a millstone around Guardiola's neck and Lavia would have been an ideal understudy for Rodri. On reflection, the Cityzens perhaps should've kept him around and opted to loan him out to Southampton instead.

City's loss looks set to be Chelsea's gain. With the recent, big-money additions of Enzo Fernandez and Caicedo, Lavia won't be playing every minute of every game. However, his arrival helps Mauricio Pochettino in several ways.

The youngster's arrival frees up Fernandez to move out of his role as Chelsea's deepest midfielder and move into the box-to-box role he thrived in during his time at River Plate. The same can be said of Caicedo, who is an exciting option as a dynamic midfielder. There's even the prospect of deploying all three together, with Lavia sitting and the other two pushing forward.

Economically speaking, it's a good price as well. As Liverpool are discovering, there's a real dearth of centre-midfielders capable of operating for a top-six side.

Tying down one of the hottest prospects in this position in world football on a long-term deal is a sound investment - not something that can be said about a lot of other signings Chelsea have made since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover.