Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu is set to join Southampton after agreeing personal terms and completing a medical on Wednesday, according to Sky Sports. The fee to take the midfielder from London to the south coast club is believed to be £4million. Romeu has been at Chelsea for four years, spending half of his time there on loan with other clubs, and has decided to leave the West London club in order to find some first team Football. Oriol Romeu would be Southampton’s seventh signing of the transfer window and would be extremely helpful as the club look to push on towards European football.
Romeu saw most of his chances to impress at Chelsea come in his first season with the club as he registered 16 Premier League appearances and 24 appearances over the course of the season. He was injured in his first season with the club and when he came back from injury he found it hard to come by chances in the first team.
Last season, he was loaned to German Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart and he made 27 appearances forming a crucial part of the first team. Current Chelsea manager José Mourinhoappears to have little use for the defensive midfielder in spite of this – given that he has the option of choosing from Nemanja Matic who is regarded as the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League, Cesc Fabregas,who was vital to Chelsea’s title winning exploits last season, registering 18 assists, John Obi Mikel, Ramires who are both reliable midfielders and highly rated youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
It is believed that Romeu was sought after by Leicester City for what would have been his third loan move. However Romeu wanted to find a new club to play at on a permanent basis. After selling Morgan Schneiderlin to Manchester United, Southampton are looking to fill the enormous gap that he has left there and have already recruited Dutch international Jordy Clasie.
Signing Romeu would give The Saints extra cover in that position as well as a player who has top flight experience with a footballing education that covers across England, Spain and Germany.
In transferring to Southampton, Oriol Romeu may be able to develop more steadily and show followers of the Premier League the form that led Chelsea to buy him from Barcelona.
