Romeo Lavia | Chelsea bound?

roonster09

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there's a write-up on Reddit about Chelsea and FFP but someone who seems to know they're on about

Hard to take it seriously when he uses spotrac and capology for wages.

At the same time we have drastically reduced our wage bill. In the season 2022/23, we spent €265 million on wages. This year it will come in at around €175 million. Slightly higher than Liverpool, €20 million lower than Arsenal and a whopping €65 million lower than City and United.
 

Orc

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Where would he play?

Surely the formation is:

Enzo - Caicedo
----Nkunku
Nkunku will not be seen before the new year most likely. And with serious knee injuries like this it may take him even longer to fully regain form.

So if we got Lavia I’d assume we‘d play with two #6’s (Caicedo & Lavia) with Enzo slightly more advanced like he was yesterday against Liverpool.
 

IrishRedDevil

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Nkunku will not be seen before the new year most likely. And with serious knee injuries like this it may take him even longer to fully regain form.

So if we got Lavia I’d assume we‘d play with two #6’s (Caicedo & Lavia) with Enzo slightly more advanced like he was yesterday against Liverpool.
Makes sense, cheers.
 

zaafi

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I really don’t get why people are so hung up on the proposed fee for Lavia. At 19 a talent like this can lock down a place in the Liverpool or Chelsea sides for 8-10 years. And if he does that you’ll look back at £55-60m as a huge bargain.

When players like McTominay or Gallagher are being quoted between £45-50m these days I’d say Lavia who is easily better than both already and has the talent to get WAY better than he is now is worth the asking price.
The overrating of Lavia here is just way over the top. He is a huge talent, but suggesting he's better already than McTominay is a stretch. He has played 2000 PL minutes and just got relegated and mostly dominated in midfield apart from a few matches where he looked really good.

He has a way higher ceiling than him, but better now? Nope. McTominay would look much better if he was a Southampton player without the bias and less expectations.
 

daba

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Okay at £60m I’m no longer wishing we were still in for him.
 

Devil_forever

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Hard to take it seriously when he uses spotrac and capology for wages.

At the same time we have drastically reduced our wage bill. In the season 2022/23, we spent €265 million on wages. This year it will come in at around €175 million. Slightly higher than Liverpool, €20 million lower than Arsenal and a whopping €65 million lower than City and United.
No chance their wage bill is reduced to £175m per year. If they pull that off, I will never question the genius of their owners again.
 

roonster09

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No chance their wage bill is reduced to £175m per year. If they pull that off, I will never question the genius of their owners again.
They didn't, it's just an people checking crap sites.

They achieved feck all, let's see what their wages will be when they publish their reports.
 

Annihilate Now!

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How? Lavia is actually proven in the Prem, sure not a seasoned pro but he looks comfortable playing in the league.
Comfortable in a team that literally got relegated? The impressive thing about him is how old is he to be starting games in the Prem - not his actual performance (which are mostly fine - but nothing incredible). The lad hasn't even started a game for his country yet.

Hojlund plays in a FAR more premium position, for a team that came 5th in Italy, scored 9 goals last year and has 6 international goals. You're always going to pay more for strikers, that's just how the the world works.
 

philippexyz

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How? Lavia is actually proven in the Prem, sure not a seasoned pro but he looks comfortable playing in the league.
Striker market is completely screwed, prices are hyperinflated. Paying £70m for a young, talented, physically gifted striker who played in Serie A(one of the 3 best leagues on the planet) doesn't look so crazy anymore.

Strikers are overall, most expensive(valuable) footballers along with wingers - goalscorers in general.
 

bosnian_red

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Makes £72m on Hojlund look alright by comparison.
I'd say they're pretty equivalent, slight overpays but not a big deal given age, potential, talent they've shown, position of need and scarcity of talent. The type of overpay that nobody cares about after their 1st game
 

Devil_forever

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Comfortable in a team that literally got relegated? The impressive thing about him is how old is he to be starting games in the Prem - not his actual performance (which are mostly fine - but nothing incredible). The lad hasn't even started a game for his country yet.

Hojlund plays in a FAR more premium position, for a team that came 5th in Italy, scored 9 goals last year and has 6 international goals. You're always going to pay more for strikers, that's just how the the world works.
He looked head and shoulders above all his team mates and more than held his own against better midfielders last season. I would say he’s pretty comfortable.
 

Annihilate Now!

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I'd say they're pretty equivalent, slight overpays but not a big deal given age, potential, talent they've shown, position of need and scarcity of talent. The type of overpay that nobody cares about after their 1st game
Oh yeah, definite overpays both of them - but it puts the Hojlund fee into a bit of perspective at least. Especially as he's an actual striker in a world where there aren't many actual (good) strikers anymore.
 

zaafi

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He looked head and shoulders above all his team mates and more than held his own against better midfielders last season. I would say he’s pretty comfortable.
He did not look "head and shoulders above" all of his team mates, no. And even if he did, that's not saying much as they got relegated.
 

Crimson King

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How? Lavia is actually proven in the Prem, sure not a seasoned pro but he looks comfortable playing in the league.
Proven is overstating it a bit. He had moments, made to look better in a pretty poor Southampton side. His overall performance level was very patchy.

Obviously has a lot of talent and looks like a good investment for any team that gets him. He's not a player who will end up getting you lots of goals or assists though. Goalscorers and creators will always come at a premium.
 

Steve 007

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There is no way Lavia is going Chelsea. They’ve broke the record so Caiceda is a starter. That leaves Lavia on the bench. Makes no sense for him. Can’t understand why Chelsea need him. He’ll go to Liverpool.
 

Drizzle

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He looked head and shoulders above all his team mates and more than held his own against better midfielders last season. I would say he’s pretty comfortable.
I watched him a few times live, and came away with the impression he was quite good but nothing special. Very young so good potential, but I did not see a future world class player or anywhere near.

He'll probably be good for Liverpool as he's a specialist DM, but he's young, raw, and they really can't afford to be relying on him week after week. So they need to invest further.
 

Fortitude

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Yep it is available for everyone to do but at the same time extremely risky as you aren’t shifting anyone on any time soon if they are a failed signing. Just looking at some of the contract lengths for their players, it’s pretty insane. They could have a stack of failed transfers just collecting pay checks for years.

Enzo - 9 years
Badiashille - 8yrs
Mudryk - 8yrs
Madueke - 8yrs
Caicedo - 8yrs
Wes Fofana - 7yrs
David Fofana - 7yrs
Nkunku - 6yrs
Cucurella - 6yrs
Broja - 6yrs

Looking just at the list above, there’s only really 3 of them that look like they have a good chance of being regular first teamers.
The concept of failed transfers will shift unless the Saudi sale route is shored up. These discards will be worth a fortune otherwise.
 

DWelbz19

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At 19 a talent like this can lock down a place in the Liverpool or Chelsea sides for 8-10 years.
How often does this ever actually work out like that?
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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We are laughing at Chelsea and Liverpool getting fleeced now but whomever misses out on Lavia is going to go for Amrabat next.
 

B20

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We have a pretty good record buying from relegated clubs, so that part I am not so worried by.

Lavia would make a lot more sense coming in to phase out someone like Henderson though. As it stands he's being thrown into deep waters.
 

ArjenIsM3

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It's not talked about enough. How can a team spend 900m in 12 months and comply with FFP?
I'm not accusing anyone but someone needs to explain.
Well the line from Chelsea fans is they've sold well so the net spend isn't that bad. No idea if there's any truth to that.
 

mav_9me

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Yes, that is how it is done for FFP accounting, I think. There is one incorrect assumption about inadequate amortisation of players sold that I have alluded to in post#1412.

The calculations are crude, obviously. A very accurate accounting will probably be half a day's work in Excel. My only idea was to show how Boehly has "played" the FFP and now Chelsea, who despite spending insanely, still have FFP cash to burn.

There is so much profit already, that the valid points made by @roonster09 and @limerickcitykid (which I've already acknowledged) shouldn't matter. It certainly won't equate to an error of 100s of millions as someone just mentioned. I will let some Twitter guy do the dirty Excel work for the exact results.
Swiss ramble said he'll do it once the window closes

 

Orc

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The overrating of Lavia here is just way over the top. He is a huge talent, but suggesting he's better already than McTominay is a stretch. He has played 2000 PL minutes and just got relegated and mostly dominated in midfield apart from a few matches where he looked really good.

He has a way higher ceiling than him, but better now? Nope. McTominay would look much better if he was a Southampton player without the bias and less expectations.
Huh? McTominay is dogshit and wouldn‘t make the bench at any of the other big PL clubs. Lavia meanwhile has been highly sought after by most of them. He’s miles more talented and better right now than McTominay before he has even realized that talent fully.
 

André Dominguez

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Hum... Liverpool could hire Sangaré who is a very solid defensive midfielder by a smaller value.