Ralph Hasenhuttl
Tino Livramento is set to make his first appearance in Saints colours during Saturday’s friendly against Athletic Bilbao, with boss Ralph Hasenhuttl declaring: “I am very proud the club managed to bring him in.” Saints fought off reported competition from around Europe to snap up the highly-rated 18-year-old defender. He joined the club from Chelsea this week for a fee said to be in the region of £5million, having won the club’s academy player of the year award last season. Livramento is yet to make a competitive senior appearance, but was twice named on the bench for Premier League fixtures with the Blues last season. And the St Mary’s crowd are set to get their first chance to see the new man in action when La Liga side Bilbao head to the south coast (3pm). Discussing the club’s latest recruit,
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “He has trained twice very hard after his COVID he had for two weeks, he was out. He needs a little bit of time to come to the level others are at the moment. We have had four very tough weeks (of pre-season) so far at a good level, so we will want to give him a chance against Bilbao, maybe for 45 or 30 minutes. I want to have a look. But from what I have seen so far in the first sessions is he is a fantastic player for us and one of the best young players on this position in England I think, so I am very proud the club managed to bring him in. And I don’t want to hang the expectations too high, but I think in the next five years we will have a lot of fun with him.”
Full-back Livramento will challenge Kyle Walker-Peters and Yan Valery for a starting berth at Saints in his preferred position of right-back, while the club also hope he can provide cover for Romain Perraud on the left side of defence. The teenager has joined in with his first training sessions this week, and new team-mate Oriol Romeu likes what he has seen so far. Asked for his first impressions of Livramento,
Oriol Romeu said: “A great lad. He’s a young player. But I’ve only seen one session, one exercise. From what I’ve seen from our side, a very good young lad with probably a great future ahead of him. Happy to have him here. He is going to be a good option at the back as well. He looks strong, he looks fit. Although he’s young, he’s got quite a physical presence so I’m sure he’s going to be a good help for us as well.”
Livramento is the second teenager Saints have attracted from Chelsea this summer, with centre-back Dynel Simeu also arriving to link up initially with the B team. Asked how promising it is that Saints can attract such talent from big clubs like Chelsea,
Oriol Romeu added: “Yeah, probably because they’re seeing they’ve got chances and they can grow and get some proper games here. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as they come to perform and do their thing, we’re happy, people to come and help and do a good job.”
