According to Dean Jones, Chelsea were ready to overpay to sign Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, who had only just joined Southampton from Manchester City.

Chelsea ended up signing Denis Zakaria on loan from Juventus after failing to convince Southampton to sell 18 year old Lavia.

“They’ve obviously seen something they like. They were willing to massively overpay for him and take a gamble that he is the real deal,” Jones told Givemesport.

“We’ll see if he stays on their radar for the next window.”

Meanwhile, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has confirmed Chelsea offered £50million on transfer deadline day to sign Lavia from Southampton.

Southampton had only just signed Lavia from Manchester City this summer for £12million with Manchester City having a £40million buyback clause.

Romano said: “Behind the scenes. Chelsea wanted to sign Romeo Lavia on Deadline Day with £50m verbal proposal rejected by Southampton — of course, he’s untouchable.

“Southampton invested £12m plus add-ons for Lavia — and Man City have £40m buy back clause.”