Manchester City players including Kevin De Bruyne are keeping in contact with former academy youngster Romeo Lavia, who says he left the Etihad permanently this summer after being impressed with Southampton when they visited the Etihad last season.
Lavia, 18, had been a regular fixture in City first-team training over the last 12 months, as well as playing a pivotal role in the under-23s' title win. He could have continued to push for senior minutes this year to build on his two first-team outings last season, but instead secured a permanent move to Southampton for a fee of around £12m.
The Belgian was given his Premier League debut at the first attempt as he started Southampton's defeat at Tottenham last weekend, and he has now opened up on his experiences of training with Pep Guardiola's first team.
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His relationship with the senior City players was so much, he says, that he can still text the likes of compatriot Kevin De Bruyne, who gave him a motivational message when he left for St Mary's.
"It was an amazing, amazing experience," Lavia said, referring to his City debut in the Carabao Cup alongside De Bruyne. "Now he is more than a teammate to me and, when I can, I can go to to ask for advice and just speak about anything. It's crazy to think that I was playing in that tournament, and now I'm someone that is actually close to him."
"We keep in touch. He's happy for me, and he's told me that now I need to ‘show them what I showed him’ in training with the Manchester City first team."
Lavia also opened up on how his move to Southampton came about, revealing that he was sitting his exams in the summer, saying the decision to move to the South Coast was easy - especially after being involved in City's matches vs Southampton last season.
“I’ll be honest with you, in the middle of June I’m doing my school exams – I hear interest from Southampton, and when I hear it I’m just like ‘let’s go',” he said.
“I looked at the culture of the club, the style of play with which I was really impressed by when I was on the bench for City playing against Southampton. It was really exciting and that’s how it went.”
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