Leeds United made some fantastic signings this summer.
Luis Sinisterra, Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams are already looking like stars in the making, but in years to come, the big story of this transfer window may be centred around the players who didn’t arrive rather than the ones who did.
From Charles De Ketelaere to Cody Gakpo and Bamba Dieng, Leeds missed out on plenty of talented footballers in the last transfer window, but perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the lot was Romeo Lavia.
Lavia was, of course, wanted by Leeds United before his move to Southampton, and there was even talk of a swap deal for Lavia plus cash in exchange for Kalvin Philips.
As we all know, that deal didn’t go ahead and Phillips was eventually sold for £42m, but now, Lavia is already worth more than that.
Indeed, just a few weeks after joining Southampton in a £10.5m transfer, Chelsea bid £50m for Lavia on Deadline Day – a bid that was actually rejected.
Who knows what Southampton value Lavia at, but after just a handful of Premier League appearances, he’s been touted for a higher fee than Phillips who is a regular England international.
Is Lavia actually worth more than Phillips? Well, common sense would tell you that the answer is no. After all, he’s played just five league games in his life, but given how broken the transfer window is, Southampton already believe he’s a £50m+ player.
If Leeds had pushed for this Lavia-Phillips swap deal, they could’ve made a huge profit, but sadly, Victor Orta didn’t quite manage to get this transfer over the line.
Leeds’ loss was Southampton’s gain, and it surely won’t be long before this teenager is moving to a top club for massive money.
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