Young midfielder Oriol Romeu Vidal's Chelsea career has come to an end after 33 appearances, none of which have come in the last two seasons.
CONFIRMED: #SaintsFC completes the signing of @OriolRomeu from @chelseafc on a three-year contract. https://t.co/qYZcDP064y
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 12, 2015
Romeu arrived with very little fanfare and departs with even less, but for a hot minute under Andre Villas-Boas, it looked like he could be an answer in central midfield for us. He wasn't deemed as reliable as John Obi Mikel by AVB's successor Roberto Di Matteo however, and even though Interim manager Rafa Benitez rated his fellow Spaniard, he could do nothing about a devastating knee injury -- a bit of a theme, that, for many of our midfield prospects it seems.
The road to recovery has been long and has included loans to Valencia and Stuttgart. He's done alright, if not spectacularly at both, and there's no reason to think he couldn't do a similar job at Southampton as well. According to the BBC, the final sale price was £5m.
After paying down remaining £1m in book value on Oriol Romeu's transfer fee, Chelsea records a £4m profit from £5m sale to Southampton. #cfc
— Jake Cohen (@JakeFCohen) August 12, 2015
Good luck, Romeu!