‘Loan with no option to buy’ – Man City fans wants the club to use young star in Swap deal for Kalvin Phillips

Manchester City fans have been reacting to a post on Twitter which relays a report that claims Leeds United and Southampton are interested in signing Romeo Lavia this summer.

The 18-year-old has impressed in his two years at the City Football Academy, and played in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup last season for City, as well as training regularly with the first team.

The Belgian midfielder is extremely highly-rated at the club, and has often been likened to City captain Fernandinho. Many fans were expecting the teenager to be used more next season, given the departure of Fernandinho, as a backup for Rodri.

Phil Hay & Sam Lee of The Athletic reported on Wednesday that the feeling at Man City is that Romeo Lavia is not quite ready to step up and compete with Rodri for first-team minutes.

According to Mike McGrath of The Telegraph, Leeds are interested in signing the Manchester City and Belgium U-21 star to strengthen Jesse Marsch’s midfield options next season.

It has been further reported by The Athletic that Leeds and Southampton are both eyeing a swoop for the 18-year-old, who was part of Manchester City’s first-team squad last season.

The Athletic interestingly claims that Man City could use Lavia as a makeweight in a player-plus-cash deal to sign Kalvin Phillips from Leeds.

The report was shared on Twitter by City Xtra and it attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.

“Loan him out he ain’t ready for the first team.”
Credit: @MCFC_OneAndOnly

“This could help us in signing Kalvin Phillips,but I hope Lavia is going there on a loan deal.”
Credit: @nwanneka_omeche

“Loan with no option to buy, the experience will be good for him.”
Credit: @berniemerchant

“Sweeten the Phillips deal. Put a buy back on him too..”
Credit: @BernardoTouch

“Loan only please.”
Credit: @razman14

“Swap deal with Phillips..”
Credit: @Sashank_

“You have to be generational or really classy to make it at City, use him as leverage in the Phillips deal, if that’s who Pep wants, slam a buyback like we have done with Bazanu and use Leeds as the tester to see if he’s good enough or not, great business model!.”
Credit: @TW300695

“A 2 season loan would be absolutely perfect for him , if he can get in and perform well he can come back if not then we know whether he’s got what we need or not.”
Credit: @cjh8707