How Chelsea could do with a full-back like Tino Livramento right now.
Barely a week goes by without one of their full-backs being ruled out through injury or suspension. Against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, head coach Mauricio Pochettino ended up selecting centre-backs Axel Disasi and Levi Colwill to play on the flanks as Reece James, Malo Gusto, Marc Cucurella and Ben Chilwell were all absent.
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The day before, Livramento, away from his preferred position at right-back, had demonstrated his versatility by starring for Newcastle as a left-back in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United. The England Under-21 international is being strongly tipped to be called up to the senior England squad sooner rather than later, to beat off competition from Portugal and Scotland.
For Chelsea, this is another tale of what might have been for a young talent developed in-house. His departure, as well as that of Jamal Musiala to Bayern Munich in 2019, remains a sore point back at the club who nurtured him.
Livramento grew up supporting Chelsea and was part of their academy between 2009 and 2021. Yet Newcastle are the ones reaping the benefits from his education at their training ground in Cobham. He was even part of their starting XI as they comfortably beat Pochettino’s side 4-1 a couple of weeks ago.
So how did this come to pass?
Livramento was talked about at Chelsea’s academy as one of their best prospects for years. It is not as if his progress or ability was going unnoticed.
Chelsea held talks over a contract extension during the 2020-21 season, aware they risked losing him for a small fee since his deal was expiring in 2022. Clubs are paid compensation for academy-trained players who are under 24 and out of contract, with the sum either agreed between the two teams involved in the transfer or set by a tribunal — but the club who lose the player rarely feels like they receive a good price.
Those negotiations on a new deal did not progress very far, with Chelsea failing to convince Livramento that a clear pathway existed into the first team.
In fairness, it was a daunting task.
The club captain and veteran defender Cesar Azpilicueta was established at full-back and he ended up playing at Chelsea for two more seasons before joining Atletico Madrid last summer. But perhaps of more concern to Livramento was that James — a fellow academy graduate and only three years older — was already cemented in the first-team setup and earmarked to be a mainstay of the squad for the next decade.
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Azpilicueta and James started the Champions League final win over Manchester City in 2021 — they were trusted by the then-head coach Thomas Tuchel. How many games could Livramento expect to play in the following campaign in such a situation?
Chelsea knew about his doubts and proposed a loan to secure him regular first-team football. It was a route James had taken — as well as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori — before making the grade at Chelsea. But Livramento was not interested, perhaps wary of experiencing what less successful youngsters such as Josh McEachran and Lucas Piazon had gone through at the club.
Their Chelsea careers degenerated into a series of loans before both were eventually sold.
The arrival of Tuchel as head coach in January 2021 also played a part in what happened next.
No one can dispute the German did a good job during his 20 months in charge, but this was not a man committed to giving youth a chance. In the 2021-22 campaign, he did not give any Premier League minutes to teenagers — only the second Chelsea coach since the competition began in 1992 to so blank the club’s academy prospects.
While Livramento was still at Chelsea, he saw youngsters Callum Hudson-Odoi, Billy Gilmour and Abraham, who had all played regularly under predecessor Frank Lampard, suddenly struggle for game time under Tuchel.
Despite being aware of Livramento’s situation, Tuchel failed to give him any minutes. He was named on the bench twice, against Manchester City and Arsenal towards the end of the 2020-21 season, but that was the closest Livramento came to a first-team appearance for his boyhood club.
In Tuchel’s defence, he was trying to secure Chelsea a top-four finish to qualify for the Champions League. Perhaps an opportunity was missed during the run to the FA Cup final, given they played EFL club Barnsley and Premier League strugglers Sheffield United in the last 16 and quarter-finals but, then again, Tuchel was under pressure to win. Lampard had not selected Livramento earlier in the season, either.
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Tuchel’s interest in signing another right-back, Achraf Hakimi of Inter Milan, did not help the situation. The transfer did not happen, with Hakimi instead joining Paris Saint-Germain, but the pursuit had sent the wrong message.
The club eventually used the sales of academy players Marc Guehi, Ike Ugbo, Lewis Bate, Myles Peart-Harris, Dynel Simeu, Abraham, Tomori and Livramento — which all counted as straight profit in the accounts — in the summer of 2021 to help fund the £97.5million ($123.1m) acquisition of Romelu Lukaku.
But, speaking the following October, Tuchel claimed he and Chelsea had done all they could to convince Livramento to stay. “We did everything to keep him here, to show him his future and his possibilities to compete for a position in our team,” he said. “He decided to go, that was his decision, and you sometimes have to accept it. There are no hard feelings because we can only show him possibilities and then it is on the player.”
Chelsea had to contend with other clubs looking to capitalise on the situation. Brighton, who had successfully wooed Tariq Lamptey away in similar circumstances in January 2020, were the early favourites to sign him in the summer of 2021. Lamptey started 18 Premier League games in his first 12 months at Brighton and only injury checked his run in the side.
Southampton began speaking with then-Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia about a transfer in March 2021. With Livramento making it clear he would not sign an extension, despite winning Chelsea’s academy player of the year award, the club felt they had little option but to enter into negotiations.
Livramento later said the decision to join Southampton was down to him.
Speaking in October 2021, he said: “Regrets? It would have been nice to play a game (for Chelsea’s first team), but I had to think about what was best for me. I have always wanted to play first-team football as soon as possible. If I had stayed there, things would not have happened as quickly. It was a hard decision for everyone involved. They agreed that it was best for me as well and they have always looked after me.”
Surprisingly Livramento, who made 25 Premier League starts for Southampton in that debut season, was sold for just £4million — a fee that did not have to be paid until the following summer (2022). However, Chelsea inserted a buy-back clause and a significant sell-on fee as part of the deal.
While Chelsea lost Livramento during the Roman Abramovich regime, the package negotiated by Granovskaia still gave the club’s current owners, the Todd Boehly/Clearlake consortium, a chance to rectify the situation. The size of the buy-back clause was set at around £50million — but due to the discount provided by the sell-on clause, Chelsea would have only ended up needing to pay around £35m-£38m to re-sign Livramento.
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But any hope of convincing him to return following Southampton’s relegation from the Premier League was ended when Chelsea decided to sign Gusto, 19 at the time, from Lyon last January for €30million (£26.3m; $32.5m) instead. There were suggestions Chelsea still explored the idea, but Livramento was never going to consider competing with James and Gusto for game time.
Instead, he opted for Newcastle, joining them for a fee approaching £40million. Dan Ashworth, who had coveted him while director of football at Brighton, finally had his man.
Chelsea made around £17.5million from the sell-on clause, but that still only makes the total earned from Livramento’s sale a mere £21.5m — a relatively meagre sum now he is emerging as one of the best young full-backs in England’s top division.
No one will dispute that things have worked out for the best for Livramento.
The same cannot be said for Chelsea.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
