Newcastle set to sign Tino Livramento from Southampton

Newcastle United are on the verge of completing their third major senior signing of the summer with the acquisition of Southampton defender Tino Livramento for a fee reaching £40m.

David Ornstein of The Athletic reported the news first on Thursday, with a deal reached between Magpies and Saints after negotiations between the two clubs began in June.

As we already reported here, Livramento’s previous club, Chelsea, will benefit from a rather ridiculous sell-on fee, which contributed to the complexity of the negotiations and the operation dragging into August.

The 20-year-old full-back had an impressive breakout season with Southampton in 2021, but his progress was hampered by an ACL injury in April 2022, keeping him sidelined for over a year. He returned to action in May this year and has been a key player in Southampton’s pre-season matches, showing he’s definitely not lost a single step.

Eddie Howe reportedly considers him “a valuable addition” to the squad, with the young England U21 international expected fight with Kieran Trippier for minutes at the right-back position, adding depth to the defensive line and developing under one of the best veterans in the Premier League in Kieran.

Livramento’s signing takes Newcastle’s summer spending to over £130m, following the earlier arrivals of Sandro Tonali from Milan (£55m) and Harvey Barnes from Leicester (£39m).

In other news, Newcastle’s summer transfer window activity kept going on the departures front with full-back Harrison Ashby going out on loan to Swansea for the next campaign.

No official announcement at the time of this writing, but everything is already set in stone according to multiple reports.

Never say never, but with Tino Livramento joining Newcastle following the arrivals of Tonali and Barnes, it feels like most of the top-heavy business is already done by the Magpies. Still, a month left before the window closes, though, so there is still time for Howe to work some magic. We’ll see how that goes.