Unlike his fellow ex Saint James Ward Prowse, there was no early debut in the West Ham V Chelsea game on Sunday, in fact Lavia found that we was not even on the bench for the trip to East London and first team chances may not come early for the 19 year old.
James Ward Prowse was straight into West Ham United's team on Sunday for their game against Romeo Lavia's Chelsea, JWP excelled with two assists starting off where he left off for Southampton.
But for Romeo Lavia there was no dream debut for his new club, in fact he was not even on the bench alongside Moises Caicedo who signed from Brighton just a day or so earlier.
Now former Chelsea player Glen Johnson suggests that Lavia may be heading back to Southampton earlier than he anticipated.
Speaking to betfred.com Johnson had this to say when asked if he saw Lavia getting much time on the pitch at Chelsea this season:
"It all depends on how he starts. He’s a fantastic player, but he’s still a young kid. You can never buy a 19-year-old and assume they’re going to walk straight into your first-team. You have to wait and see how he performs amongst the top players that Chelsea already have. He’s gone into a big dressing room that includes many top, top players, so I can’t imagine that Chelsea are expecting him to come in and improve them straight away.
"There’s a chance that Roméo does settle in very quickly if he’s older than his years. If he doesn’t start off too well, then they could always loan him out as he’s so young and will be at the club for a number of years. They could even let him go back to Southampton and give him a chance to perform. On the other hand, if he hits the ground running and doesn’t look out of place, then he will get even more gametime. It’s hard to guess what’s going to happen as he’s so young and going into such a big dressing room.”
Interesting words from Johnson, certainly in going to Chelsea Romeo Lavia is going into a big squad and one that is not actually full of harmony as Mauricio Pochetino looks to revamp the squad.
So far this summer Chelsea have made 9 signings totalling the best part of £400 million and that is in addition to the £500 million spent last season, certainly there are going to be questions asked of Chelsea in regards to the Financial Fair Play rules and net spending, given that in the same period they brought in less than £300 million in incoming transfer fees.
This does not make good reading for Lavia though, he is a small part of a very big picture, he has to force his way into the first team reckoning and then make sure he stays in.
As Johnson says if he doesn't get into the squad early doors then Chelsea might look to loan him out, if that is the case then the close ties Saints have with Chelsea make St Mary's a natural choice for them.
It would be unlikely to happen before the end of this transfer window, but certainly in January it could be a very probable scenario and Saints might just get a big boost to their promotion hopes at a critical part of the season.
From a footballing perspective Lavia was never going to get the game time that he got last season at Southampton, he would have been better staying at St Mary's and learning his trade more.
But from a financial perspective, this isn't a realistic option for young players anymore, they have to take the bloated contract offers when they come in, even if it stunts their development, injury could strike at any time and what young player wants to see their career ended with only 3 years left on a £50, 000 per week contract, thus making them only a mere multi millionaire, when they can secure their financial future on a £120k a week 5 year deal.