Arsenal’s activity in the transfer market shows no signs of slowing down, even after securing the signings of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz.
The Gunners have been actively investing in their midfield and have already spent close to €200 million on the aforementioned players. However, according to The Times, they are now eyeing Southampton’s Romeo Lavia.
Lavia, a highly-rated Belgian midfielder, has attracted interest from several top Premier League clubs, including Liverpool and Chelsea. Despite already bolstering their midfield with Rice and Havertz, Arsenal is reportedly considering a move for Lavia.
Southampton is expected to allow the youngster to leave following their relegation from the Premier League, and there is significant competition for his signature. Although Southampton is demanding £50 million for Lavia’s transfer, Arsenal appears undeterred by the price tag, which would potentially push their total spending on midfielders alone to around £200 million.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Lavia is a talented boy and is just 19, which means so much more will come from him.
If we add him to our squad, he could give us up to ten years of good performance, as he has the potential to develop even further under a good manager like Mikel Arteta.
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This one makes sense, in a low laying midfield three, Odegaard, Rice , Lavia.
Odegaard in the three will be relied upon for his skills and technical brilliance.
Rice is for his aerial prowess, dual battles and interceptions.
Lavia will brings that physical presence and aggression.
Playing Havertz and Odegaard this deep would be a disaster waiting to happen.
Bringing lavia to the squad will be an interesting one. He is young and vibrant. He will be a type of player who be eager to get silverware
S’ton have mugged us in the past with Ox, Chambers. Now we have Mikel who will cherry pick the best from the rest. Wish we sign this lad. Its possible with Mikel!
You forgot about Cedric
He is one for the future. Lavia & Lakonga could be our defensive steel in 5 years time. But for now i doubt there is place for him in the starting 11.
Should be bought & send out on loan immediately for 2 or 3 years.
Defensive Midfield is the position where you cannot rely on youngsters. Experience & maturity are whats needed there.
ALWAYS FORWARD!! (but don’t put the youngsters on the front line)
It will be awesome to have him signature. And I was reading somewhere that he’s interested to play for Arsenal as well and rejected Chelsea. But nothing to be trusted till the signing.
If Partey is staying I dont think signing Lavia is essential at this point. Instead, we could focus on signing a striker.
For two thirds of the last two Season’s Partey was the best performing dcm in the Premier League.It is clear that he doesn’t possess the physical stamina to play that role throughout the Season.It makes sense,therefore,to keep him as back-up and rotate him into the match day squad…unless the Saudis are prepared to buy him for huge money.
Lavia for £50m is a ricululous price to pay for a player who has potential but might not develop too much further than Lakonga has done ….for similar reasons.
Otherwise a left-field option might be to offer Brighton £50m and Partey and Lakonga for Caicedo.
The only players that I’ve seen that is capable of offering what Partey offers our set up is Caicedo and Tchouameni. Our possession based set up requires a calm deep lying player who is assured in defence and also press resistant and able to link the midfield. Rice and Lavia can’t do that presently. The eye test shows Partey was better than Rice most of last season. He might have had some setback towards the end but class is permanent. So unless, we are signing one of Tchouameni and Caicedo, Partey must stay. A midfield 3 of Rice, Havertz and Odegaard is recipe for disaster, in my opinion especially if Zinchenko is still going to start in the inverted LB role.
It will be disappointing, however, if the only changes in the team of last season is Rice replacing Xhaka because 105mill on a small upgrade (if any) on Xhaka is not really worth it.
In my opinion, this is what we should look like next season.
Ramsdale
White Saliba Malgaheas
Partey Rice
Saka Odegaard Havertz Martinelli
Jesus
OR
White/Timber Saliba Malgaheas defensive LB (New/TierneyTomi)
Odegaard Rice Havertz/Zinchenko
Saka Jesus/Havertz Martinelli