Newcastle could well make move to sign ‘scary’ £50m midfielder very soon

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Relegated Southampton are constantly fending off interest over their top players and could now have to fight off Newcastle United for their Belgian midfielder Romeo Lavia as interest in the youngster hots up.

A report in 90mins has put Newcastle‘s name in the mix when it comes to clubs interested in taking Romeo Lavia from Southampton this summer.

The Saints rate the 19-year-old Belgian very highly as evidenced by their whopping £50million price tag for exciting midfielder.

Six Premier League clubs could be set to battle it out for Romeo Lavia

It’s little surprise that they’ve gone so high with their valuation as they’ve been doing that all summer with crazy figures bandied around for the likes of James Ward-Prowse and Tino Livramento, both of whom have been linked with a move to Newcastle.

While 90mins understands that Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are at the front of the queue for Lavia, both Manchester clubs and Newcastle are keeping a close eye on things with a view to entering the race. Manchester City have a buy-back clause on Lavia but it doesn’t kick in until 2024 so they can’t jump the queue.

Lavia made 35 appearances for Southampton last season, scoring one and assisting one, but it’s not about his goal contributions as Lavia is that Number 6 Newcastle have been looking for. It’s blocks, tackles and interceptions where he stands out, and he’s highly ranked for those three things by FBref who compare him against other CDMs across Europe’s top five leagues.

Alex Iwobi said Lavia has ‘scary potential‘ and he’s already showing that he has the ability to live up to that potential.

Lavia would be an excellent addition to Newcastle but it doesn’t look likely

He definitely ticks many boxes for Newcastle but that heft price tag could put the Magpies off having spent a huge chunk of change on Sandro Tonali already this window.

Southampton are confident that £50million is a fair price for Lavia, and given all of the interest in him I’d not be shocked if they got that figure for him, or at least something close.

I’d love to see Lavia at Newcastle but given the competition for his signature and Southampton’s hardball stance over his fee, I think we’ll end up looking elsewhere.