Romeo Lavia is a player who will always be associated almost as much with Liverpool as Chelsea.
In the summer of 2023, having fought hard against the Reds and won the signature of Moises Caicedo, Chelsea astonishingly went back in to battle for Lavia’s signing too. At the time the £58m move felt excessive, given the sums spent on Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez 6 months before that, and the other options available.
That sensation wasn’t helped by the fact that Lavia never got fit, and missed the entire season with a problem he picked up right after choosing us over Anfield.
But the glimpse we got against Man City at the start of the season and his performance yesterday in the 53 minutes he got before coming off show exactly what sort of player we’ve signed up for. He spoke to the Chelsea website about the results and his personal milestones as he tries to return from 12 tricky months.
Lavia says Blues “deserved more” after narrow loss
“I think we played a very good game overall,” Lavia said to the Chelsea official website.
“Did we deserve more? For me, probably yes but that’s just my initial thoughts and we should still take heart from our performance.”
He also spoke about his own situation. His cautious early withdrawal was hopefully something that won’t need to be repeated once he’s up to speed:
“The manager made the decision to manage my minutes and bring me off before the hour. Of course, I want to play every minute but it’s a decision he made that he felt was best for me and best for the time and I’m happy with that,” the Belgian continued.
“Of course, I’m very happy with the minutes I got and it’s pleasing to be back in action and helping the team,” he concluded.
