New Chelsea signing Romeo Lavia has revealed why he signed for the Blues despite also being wanted by Liverpool this summer.
Why did Lavia choose Chelsea?
The Belgium midfielder has now officially completed a move to Stamford Bridge, joining for an initial £53m transfer fee which could rise by a further £5m with add-ons.
Of course, though, the 19-year-old – who has now signed a seven-year contract – was also wanted by some of Chelsea's Premier League rivals, with Liverpool among those to lodge a bid for the player.
In fact, as per ESPN, the Reds even previously had a £60m offer for Lavia accepted by Southampton but the player expressed a desire to head to Stamford Bridge instead – actually allowing the Blues to negotiate a slightly lower fee.
Having now spoken about his decision for the first time, the midfielder told the Chelsea website why he wanted to join Mauricio Pochettino’s project this summer.
He began by saying: "I’m really happy join Chelsea and be a part of this exciting project. It’s an amazing football club with a great history and I’m really excited to get started.
"I can’t wait to meet all my new team-mates and build a chemistry together to achieve great things together."
But when talking specifically about his call to snub Liverpool, he said (via SportBible): "I think the project and ambitions of the club were key factors, but also the history behind it. So, these three factors determined my decision.
"The players that we've signed are players that we've played against and I've thought, 'wow these players are good', so be able to work with them is a great feeling. I think we're all young so it will be good to make each other better.
"I know Diego Moreira from young. I spoke to Wesley Fofana as well, he's a good friend of mine. It seems to be a dressing room with a great vibe and i just wanted to be a part of it.
"Mauricio Pochettino is a great manager. I think we all know what he's done before and when I spoke to him he was pretty clear on what he wanted and the direction he wanted the team to go in. His energy matched with mine, so I'm really excited to start working with him."
How much did Southampton pay for Lavia?
While it's bad news for Liverpool, and exciting news for Chelsea, it's also not a bad outcome for Southampton who have made a great profit on their signing who joined just last summer.
Indeed, Saints paid an initial £10.5m for Lavia before the start of last season as he arrived from Manchester City and played in 29 Premier League games (via ESPN).
While City will be owed a 20% sell-on fee, it's still a great bit of business for Southampton as they now look to reinvest that and help them push for promotion from the Championship this term.
All in all, it seems as though this is good business for three clubs (with Man City included) but unfortunately for Liverpool, they're left in the lurch yet again.
Indeed, after seeing Moises Caicedo also snub Jurgen Klopp and co – to complete a £115m move to the Blues instead – it's been a pretty painful few weeks for those at Anfield.