'Excited' - Eddie Howe makes Chelsea admission after Newcastle United seal £32m deal
Tino Livramento has stepped up for Newcastle United in the absence of Lewis Hall.
Eddie Howe has revealed he scouted Tino Livramento long before signing him for Newcastle United.
Livramento joined the Magpies from Southampton for an initial £32million in August 2023. At the time, there were some question marks over the deal with the full-back having only just returned from a year out with an ACL injury.
But the 22-year-old has stayed injury free on Tyneside and is now a regular in the starting XI. Livramento has played the majority of the campaign at right-back but in the past month has moved over to left-back to cover for the injured Lewis Hall.
And the Croydon-born defender has come in for a huge amount of praise. He has faced three of the Premier League’s most dangerous wingers in Jarrod Bowen, Mohamed Salah and Bryan Mbeumo consecutively yet barely gave them a sniff.
Eddie Howe watched Tino Livramento as a youngster
But how he is performing currently comes as a little surprise to Howe, who watched Livramento extensively during his Chelsea and Southampton days.
Howe revealed: “I'd watched Tino for a long time, knew and watched him at Chelsea and was really excited by him, watched him on the international stage at youth level, watched him for Southampton in his first taste of the Premier League, and I thought he was really, really good.
“But you never know how the progress of that player will fit into your philosophy and your way of working, and also how his character will fit with the squad. Again, he's another really popular member of the dressing room, really well liked. He's got a really laid-back, but professional manner.
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“I've been really impressed with how he's adapted to playing on the opposite side of the pitch. He did it for us last season and did it really well for a number of games, and he's done it well again and arguably if anything attacks better off that left-hand side than he has off the right.
“He's hung up a couple of crosses recently off his left foot – one for Joe Willock against Brighton and one right a the start of the Brentford game which Alex [Isak] nearly scored from. It shows his left foot is very strong."
Tino Livramento set to continue at left-back
Livramento is set to continue at left-back for the remaining nine games of the season as Newcastle eye Champions League qualification. Hall isn’t due back until pre-season after undergoing foot surgery.
"It's gutting, especially with the games coming up," Hall told the Newcastle club website "There's so much to play for until the end of the season and I was looking forward to them so much. So it's devastating, not just for me but being able to help the team.
"I feel like my season's gone well and it's come at probably the worst time. I would want to continue playing but we had to look at my career and agree on what was best. If I was to play through the pain, things could have got worse which would have a negative impact on my career long-term.”