We are speaking to Romeo Lavia on a day which just so happens to fall on the 100-year anniversary of the 1926 General Strike, that historic walkout which brought Britain to a standstill and cemented a certain phrase into the lexicon of the English language.
That was to ‘down tools’. Then popularised to describe three million workers showing solidarity for our coal miners. Now borrowed to berate footballers who don’t fancy their head coach. Naturally, the term crops up over the course of our conversation with Lavia.
The 22-year-old midfielder read the criticism of himself and his Chelsea team-mates when they were accused of ‘downing tools’ in order to get rid of Liam Rosenior. He was sacked after a farcical 3-0 loss away at Brighton last month represented their fifth successive league loss without scoring.
‘We’ve always said things that the other person needed to hear,’ Lavia says of the reaction inside the Chelsea changing room. ‘I’d probably say Brighton was a special one because we knew how important it was. It just felt like everything was going against us.
‘We had a good conversation. We made sure that, even if we didn’t get the result in the following game, we couldn’t give the chance to anyone to say that we’ve “given up”, because that’s not the case, even if it might have felt like that against Brighton.’
Romeo Lavia has opened up on how the Chelsea dressing room reacted to their defeat to Brighton last month, that led to Liam Rosenior’s sacking
The Blues were accused of downing tools in their 3-0 defeat to Brighton to get Rosenior sacked
Rosenior was dismissed after a run of five successive league defeats without scoring
That next game was in the FA Cup’s semi-finals at Wembley Stadium, with Chelsea beating Leeds United 1-0 to set up their showdown with Manchester City.
‘It is tough to hear because you know the work that you put in every single day,’ Lavia continues when asked on accusations of downing tools. ‘We are at Chelsea so every time something doesn’t go our way, we’re going to get criticised. It’s something we are conscious of. The most important is to not pay attention to it, and if you do, try using it in the right way as motivation to turn it around. To say we don’t listen to it would be a lie. But we use it in a good way.’
Win the FA Cup and Chelsea’s season might suddenly not resemble such a steaming pile, though Lavia does not sound as if he thinks it will save it entirely.
‘I mean… would that make it a good season? You can argue that all day,’ he says. ‘We want to win every competition we are in, so obviously we are disappointed. We have to make the most of what’s left. We all have to take part of the responsibility (for what’s happened).
‘Sometimes it is easy because you see the manager leaving and a new one coming in. But as players we need to show that we don’t just point at one person. If things happen, we are also a part of it because we are the ones on the pitch. We definitely take it to heart.’
Enzo Maresca left in January, Rosenior in April, and now they are managed by Calum McFarlane, a 38-year-old interim boss with whom Lavia already had an existing relationship from their time in City’s academy. Lavia also knows Pep Guardiola, and remembers the best piece of advice he gave him.
‘He would regularly come to the academy games and give feedback, not necessarily directly but to the coaches that we had at the time,’ Lavia recalls. ‘If I could give you one example of advice he gave me, it was to be the one that is “unseen”. I remember him saying that to me.’
What did Guardiola mean by that? ‘As in going unnoticed,’ Lavia continues. ‘It is like what we used to see with (Sergio) Busquets. If you watch the game, you don’t see Busquets. But if you watch Busquets, you see the game. He made the team tick. You’re making players around you better. He (Pep) said this is key for the position I am playing in.’
Be the washer, not the dryer, in other words. Do the dirty work, and let the others shine. ‘I like to put all my qualities for the other players,’ he adds while citing Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro. ‘I want to make other players look better because they will make us win games.’
Lavia insisted Chelsea’s squad were putting in work ‘every single day’, with the Blues responding by beating Leeds 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-finals
Lavia is targeting his first appearance in a final, with interim boss Calum McFarlane leading the Blues out for their FA Cup showpiece against Man City on Saturday
Despite the turmoil of this season, Lavia insists he and others still believe Chelsea is the best home for them. ‘Yes, of course,’ he says. ‘The day I lose belief, I will probably be the first one to leave this place. If you want to succeed, you have to be 100 per cent into it. When you’re in the building, never at any point do you see there’s a loss of belief. I 100 per cent believe that we will turn it around.
‘I don’t think the Liverpool game (a 1-1 draw secured at Anfield last weekend to end their losing run in the league) is the one that makes us realise how good we are. We know this. There is not one game that will make us believe more or not. We know it’s happened quite often that we are our own enemy, but we also know that as a team we are very good.’
Lavia was a little late for this interview, by two hours or so, because he was doing additional recovery and gym work after training at Cobham. His injury history has been hellish since signing for Chelsea from Southampton in 2023 for £53million rising to £58m. He has never managed a full 90 for his club as of yet, but is now feeling fit, and targeting his first appearance in a final.
Lavia says the squad have not been told anything on the managerial search, nor do they want to be distracted before their FA Cup final. Chelsea have not beaten City in five years in any competition. That was in the 2021 Champions League final, but Lavia reckons that record will not matter at Wembley.
‘You can say for the past five years we haven’t won but if you watch the games, you can never say they won it easily,’ he counters. ‘It is not a thing where we are like, “Oh this is impossible”.
‘We know what we are capable of doing. It doesn’t really matter who we have got in front of us. We are focused on ourselves, what we need to do, the plan we have for the game, and then go for it.’
