Mauricio Pochettino starts his first day as Chelsea head coach on Saturday, with one priority at the top of his list.
After losing Mateo Kovacic, N'Golo Kante and Manchester United-bound Mason Mount – plus fringe player Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has just joined AC Milan – Pochettino is in desperate need of a couple of new midfielders.
The Blues are reportedly confident of signing top target Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion in a deal worth around £80m, but Pochettino will no doubt want another enforcer in the engine room to provide cover and ultimately challenge for regular starts.
Southampton's Romeo Lavia is one such player who has been linked with the west London outfit, and Football Transfers suggests Chelsea and Liverpool are now ahead of Arsenal in the race to sign the Belgium international.
Is Southampton's Romeo Lavia a good midfield option for Chelsea?
Lavia featured 29 times for the Saints in the Premier League last season, starting 26 of those games, and was able to hold his head up high at the end of the season despite the Saints' relegation to the Championship.
The 19-year-old led the way for pass-completion percentage among Southampton players (86.4), as per WhoScored, while also showing he is not afraid to get stuck in with his nine yellow cards – three more than any teammate.
That poor disciplinary record is something that will have to be worked on, and will no doubt come naturally with age, but it is also part of Lavia's role in the side to break up play.
Indeed, The Analyst ranks Lavia in the top 12% of all midfielders across Europe's top five leagues last season in terms of possession won, with that undoubtedly his strongest area.
The former Manchester City player also registered 1.90 blocks per 90 minutes last season, according to FBref, which is an identical number to Kante – the man he is effectively being eyed as a long-term replacement for at Stamford Bridge.
Signing a player from a relegated club, especially one that is reputedly valued at £40m, will not exactly get supporters' pulses racing. However, there are countless examples of such players going on to take full advantage of their second chance – Andy Robertson (from Hull City) and Georginio Wijnaldum (from Newcastle United) at Liverpool to name just a couple of fairly recent examples.
There is also a recent history of a player making the step up from Southampton to one of the Premier League's elite clubs and becoming an instant hit. Virgil van Dijk was signed by Liverpool for a then-record £75m deal for a defender in January 2018 that was, let's not forget, ridiculed at the time for the price tag.
Van Dijk had far more experience at that point than Lavia, granted, having played two and a half seasons in the Premier League and four seasons combined in Eredivisie and the Scottish Premiership, but that is an example of a Saints success story that Chelsea will hope to replicate.
Lavia is far from the finished product, as highlighted by the fact he is only ranked in the top 46% of midfielders for what The Analyst defines as "defensive actions", but he will only become better when playing alongside the likes of Caicedo – assuming the deal goes through – and Enzo Fernandez, who are both top-level talents.
The Belgian has already proved he can mix it with the best, too, as his midfield display in Southampton's shock 2-0 EFL Cup quarter-final win over former side Man City earlier this year showed.
As put by Independent Sport writer Benjy Nurick at the time: "Romeo Lavia was an absolute monster tonight. Quite possibly the best midfielder on the pitch. Seemed to win everything, so clean in possession, and controlling so much of the game."
Ultimately, £40m for a relatively unproven player is the going price these days, and it may just be a risk worth taking for Chelsea as part of their great squad overhaul.