Just in: Fabrizio Romano confirms Liverpool could do swap deal to sign £50m player this summer

Just in: Fabrizio Romano confirms Liverpool could do swap deal to sign £50m player this summer

Liverpool are looking for creative solutions to meet Southampton’s £50m asking price for Romeo Lavia.

Having whittled through a number of options and signed two players already, Liverpool have seemingly identified Lavia as the last piece of their midfield rebuild.

However, with Saints looking for a big number to sell the 19-year-old, the Reds have hit a road-block. Now, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano for Give Me Sport, Liverpool could potentially offer Southampton a player swap deal to get around the £50m fee.

“For Romeo Lavia, the price tag is around £50million,” Romano says. “But sources believe that maybe, with some add-ons or with a creative formula such as including some players, they [Liverpool] can find a way with Southampton to reach an agreement.”

With Saints reportedly ‘resigned’ to losing the Belgian, perhaps they’d take up the chance to aid their promotion push with a Liverpool player on the books.

Liverpool searching for Lavia solution
It’s no surprise to hear that Liverpool may be looking for a different kind of solution to getting Lavia through the door. £50m is a big price to pay for a player with only 37 senior games to his name.

There have also been claims from The Athletic this week that the Reds need to get some players out before bringing any more in.

In that sense, a swap deal for Lavia would be the classic ‘two birds, one stone’ scenario. So, assuming Liverpool did try this, the next logical question would be who do they offer in exchange.

Obviously, the player going the other way would now have to accept playing at least a season in the Championship. As a result, it’s never going to be someone of equal quality to Lavia.

Looking through the Liverpool squad, the most likely outgoings this season have been the likes of Joel Matip, Joe Gomez, Thiago Alcantara, perhaps Kostas Tsimikas. None of those are going to the Championship, clearly.

Caoimhin Kelleher could be an interesting one, but with Saints already possessing a young, Irish goalkeeper, we can’t see that happening either.

So, more than likely it would be a young player. Tyler Morton, Conor Bradley, maybe someone like that. But the Reds do have high hopes for both. Personally then, we can’t see how this would work. Stump up the cash and get it done with, Liverpool