Romeo Lavia has excited plenty of Chelsea supporters with an Instagram comment to his soon-to-be teammate Andrey Santos.
Santos has spent the season on loan at Strasbourg and has flourished in France for the BlueCo-owned Ligue 1 side. In 34 appearances in all competitions, the 21-year-old midfielder scored 11 goals and provided five assists - helping him come second-place, only to fellow Chelsea loanee Djordje Petrovic, in the French club's Player of the Season awards.
The Brazil international is set to be in the Blues' squad for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup that begins midway through next month, football.london understands. Although no decision has been made by Chelsea yet regarding where Santos will play his football next season, Enzo Maresca will get a good look at him in the United States this summer.
Lavia, who may well be competing with Santos for a place in the first team next term, has showed his excitement for the Brazilian to arrive at Stamford Bridge. After Lavia put an Instagram post online where he was celebrating Chelsea qualifying for next season's Champions League with a win over Nottingham Forest on the final day, Santos left a comment of three clapping emojis on the post. "Waiting for you bro," read the reply to Santos' comment from Lavia.
Chelsea ended up finishing in fourth-place in the Premier League with the Blues recording all three points at the City Ground and Newcastle United being beaten at home to Everton. In Maresca's debut season at Stamford Bridge, he has achieved the biggest target set out to him when he was appointed around 12 months ago. Understandably, Maresca could not hide his pride when speaking to the press post-match.
He said: "Very happy. I'm very happy for many reasons. First of all, because I think the players deserve it. Since day one, they have been working very, very hard. With the club, with the owners, with the sporting directors, the players, we all go in the same direction. And I said many times during the season that the noise was more from the outside than from the inside.
"I didn't have any doubt about the players. The doubt was from the outside. All the ones that have the answers or the ones that have the truth, they were saying that we are too young, we are not good enough, they were waiting for Aston Villa to drop points for us to achieve the Champions League.
"They were saying that we were not able to win on this pitch because we are too young, because we are not experienced. Unfortunately for them, they have all been wrong. All the ones that have the truth and have the answer to everything. So in English, how you say? F off to all of them, because the players deserve that. The effort they have been doing is fantastic."
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