With Jordan Henderson and Fabinho gone to Saudi Arabia, Liverpool, now short of players who could handle the bottom of midfield, had for some time been obsessed with and negotiating for Romeo Lavia, a 19-year-old midfielder who had been at Southampton for some time.
Sensing that the Saints’ asking price was too high, Liverpool offered the highest-ever fee in the Premier League for Moises Caicedo, an Ecuadorian midfielder who had played for Brighton, and even reached an agreement with Brighton and the club.
However, the player stubbornly refused to move to Liverpool. He stayed in London and wanted to move to Chelsea, which led the club to offer a huge fee, reportedly as high as £116 million, for the player to play at Stamford Bridge.
Andrea Pellegatti, the Ecuadorian midfielder’s agent, who was rumored to have recommended the move to Chelsea in order to increase his own income, praised his client’s abilities, but said that the player himself only wanted to move to Chelsea, a club he had shown continuous interest in.
“116 million pounds, equivalent to 133 million euros. The result of long work on the player, who quickly progressed in England after moving to Belgium. With De Zerbi he exploded and then we arrived at Chelsea and Liverpool who they fought over it…”
“The amount paid is not random. It was finalised in the last few hours, but the boy only wanted Chelsea, who had started to show their interest consistently since January.”
Sport Italia
He has been a mainstay in the new team under Mauricio Pochettino and has already made four appearances, although he was unable to participate in the preseason.The club’s form has never improved, and they are languishing in 14th place in the Premier League.
He is expected to recover in the future, but his low decision-making rate in front of goal has continued from last season. If the club fails to establish a scoring pattern, there is no denying the possibility that they will finish in the bottom half of the table for the second year in a row.
If that happens, they will probably wish they had stayed at Anfield, but who knows what the future holds.