Premier League veteran Oriol Romeu has agreed to take a pay cut in order to leave Southampton and return to La Liga with Girona, as reported by Spanish publication L’Esportiu de Catalunya.
With teen sensation Romeo Lavia following in Tino Livramento’s footsteps and bursting onto the top-flight scene in the red-and-white of the Saints, a player 12 years his senior may be about to bid farewell to life on the South Coast.
Romeu joined Southampton in a £5 million deal all the way back in 2015.
But, with just one year left on his contract and having lost his starting spot to the aforementioned Lavia, a return to Spanish soil feels increasingly likely for a man who started his career at Barcelona and spent time on loan at Valencia in 2013/14.
Is Oriol Romeu leaving Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton?
According to L’Esportiu, Romeu is agreeing to lower his wage demands in order to join newly-promoted Girona. The one-time Chelsea man earns around £65,000-a-week on the banks of the Solent.
The report adds, however, that Southampton would have to rip up the final 10 months of Romeu’s contract before he can join Girona before September’s transfer deadline. Whether they are willing to do just that remains to be seen. The Spaniard remains a key figure, on and off the pitch.
And Hasenhuttl is hardly overloaded with deep-lying defensive midfielders after all. Lavia, despite an excellent start to the season, remains something of an unproven quantity. Ibrahima Diallo, meanwhile, has played just 15 minutes across Southampton’s first three games of the new campaign. He remained on the bench against Leeds United, Leicester City and Manchester United.
“I just came to get experience,” Lavia tells the Daily Echo, joining in a £14 million from Manchester City. “And I’m getting the chance.
“I’m trying to (repay the manager’s faith in me) because he trusts me. So, from my side, I have to prove the manager is correct.”
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