Jamie Carragher, a Liverpool great, has expressed concern about his former club’s pursuit of Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia.
The 19-year-old has been a target for the Reds throughout the summer, and with just a few days to the start of the Premier League season, the clubs are still at odds.
Already, Jurgen Klopp has had three bids for the south coast club rejected, with Southampton standing fast on their £50 million value of the player.
This summer, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai are two fresh faces at Anfield. Carragher, on the other hand, is sure that the German manager’s difficulties trace back to the summer of 2022.
“This [problem] stems from last summer, when Liverpool did not sign a midfielder, so everyone in that core becomes another twelve months older,” he remarked on The Overlap’s Fan Debate.
“Everyone’s talking about how this one and that one are gone. It was the proper decision for them to leave, as it was for James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, [Naby] Keita, and you’re getting huge money from Saudi Arabia for Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, who looked like their legs had completely given up last season.
“Jordan Henderson is 33, and you’re not sure about Fabinho.” Because they didn’t sign anyone under the age of twenty-three or twenty-four last summer, you end up with players who are old and at the end of their careers, some of whom were great Liverpool players, and you’re left with almost nothing.
“They’ve won the lottery with the money they’ve received for these players, getting them off the wage bill because it looked like there was nothing left there at times last season.” To be fair to Liverpool, they’ve been quite successful in the transfer market in the last five or six years. There is no discussion over something, it is declared and completed the next day.
“These transfers dragged a little bit – the Jordan Henderson and Fabinho deals dragged on for two or three weeks.”
Lavia made 29 Premier League games for St Mary’s last season, his first complete season in the English top tier since joining from Manchester City last summer.
Carragher expressed reservations about Lavia assimilating into Klopp’s midfield and the discussion surrounding his lack of experience in the position.
The former Liverpool defender has urged them to make a move for Brighton & Hove midfielder Moises Caicedo, who is garnering serious attention from Chelsea and whose future at the Seagulls is questionable.
“My problem with bringing [Romeo] Lavia in is that people keep saying he’s too young to be Liverpool’s holding midfielder, to play all season in the Premier League, so you need to bring in someone else as well,” he continued. How exactly does that work? If you pay £50m or £60m for a 19-year-old youngster to then pay £50m or £60m for someone who is 26, you’re effectively saying that Romeo Lavia will be ready in a year’s time- what do you do with the other fella?
“All we need now is the right player – [Moises] Caicedo.” You might think Caicedo is costly, but Fabinho and [Jordan] Henderson were tremendously overpriced, and they won on that side, so you might have to pay a little more on the other side – just do it.”
