Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia has been named in the top 10 of most valuable teenager footballers in the World, find out here where he is ranked and who is alongside him.

Jude Bellingham England's central midfielder who plays for Borussia Dortmund tops the list valued at 100 million Euros , followed by Jamal Musiala of Bayern Munich & then Gavi of Barcelona.

In fourth place is Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen at 70 million Euros, then Harvey Elliot of Liverpool at 35 million.

In sixth place is Youssoufa Moukoko also of Borussia Dortmund at 30 million Euros

So in lucky seventh is our man, Romeo Lavia at 18 is placed here although some Saints supporters would dispute his value being a little low at 25 million Euros, given that Chelsea allegedly had a £50 million offer rejected in August only weeks after his arrival for £12.5 million from Manchester City.

The top 10 list is completed by Endrick of Brazilian club Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, Mathys Tey of Bayern Munich and Benjamin Sesko of Red Bull Salzburg all at 20 million Euros.

The list has been compiled by Transfermarkt who although try to give an accurate market value, it is hard to be exact, Lavia for example was valued at just £2 million when Saints signed him, possibly due to the fact he had never played a first team game for Manchester City.

That value has risen swiftly since and surely would have risen higher if he had not been injured and missed just under half of the games he could have played had he not damaged his hamstring.

As mentioned Chelsea were said to have offered £50 million for the player, although selling him to Chelsea at this price might be difficult as City are said to have a buy back clause of somewhere between £25-30 million depending on which source you believe, although as we have found out in the past transfer clauses can only be enforced if the player agrees to move.

Some Saints fans will be cynical and claim we are a selling club if we sell him so quickly, the reality in today's game is that we will have little choice if he or any in demand player want to go, they will go, that is the nature of the modern game.

So we have to use the strategy that we have in place, we signed Lavia for £12 million, if we made a 100% profit on the player in January, it would be disappointing from one viewpoint, but from another it is better to have had him for a short period of time than not at all.

We cannot compete on a level playing field with the top clubs, we have to think outside of the box and develop our own strategy and that means buying players cheaply and selling them on and then reinvesting the money.

That has always been the Southampton Way for the last 60 years, it is not a new invention by our current owners, Ted Bates was doing it in the 1960's, Lawrie McMenemy followed on and in the last 10 years the club has done it very well, Saints problems happen not because we are selling players, but if we reinvest the money badly, I have constantly said during this time that our problem is never selling players, it is when we are not selling them because no one wants to buy them.

I hoe Romeo Lavia stays for a long time at St Mary's my gut feeling is he won't, but he will leave wus with more cash in the bank and we can move on to the next signing and with more cash in the bank we may be able to also go in for the next level of transfer fee player.

Tino Livramento having turned 20 did not appear in this list, however he does appear in the list of most valuable U21 players, he is at number 40 oalso on 25 million Euros, however I suspec that he might drop down a place in the next day or so, at number 41 was Saints target Goncano Ramos on 24 million Euros, perhaps highlighting how this list is not entirely accurate given that we were supposedly quoted 40 million when we tried to sign him.

Photo: Action Images

wessexman added 17:24 - Dec 7 Let us hope the club has factored all this in and we land ourselves the much needed front man.
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underweststand added 19:57 - Dec 7 Yes we made a good deal and lots of people agree, but as he has only played a handful of games so far there are two alternatives: Even if / when we pull out of the drop zone, he and everyone else will want to play top level football and if we get a big enough offer, (and can also get a sell-on %) ..it'll be no loss to lose a player that few people have watched, or would even recognise in the street. Sad to say it .but it's an old history and big money talks at the end of the day.

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Kenm added 20:20 - Dec 7 Saints can make money by finishing further up the league table !, but Saints management can't see beyond of their noses !, their only philosophy is SELL SELL !, not improve the team ?
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SanMarco added 09:06 - Dec 8 Let's be brutally honest - if he turns out to be a 'young superstar' then he will want to be off before long. Making the best possible deal and using the money well are far more important than the old 'selling club' quarrels. I saw that Man C are hoping to sell Grealish to make way for someone or other - so they are a selling club too? Re-reading my paragraph I would of course add that he should stay for at least a season (a few years a go I would have said 'at least two seasons' -but the circus that is football now means that if we had got Gakpo we would probably now been 'resigned' to losing him in January). I couldn't be bothered to get annoyed with it all nowadays - life is too short!!

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