Manager suggests he doesn’t want his side to sell £23m player to Newcastle

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The Tino Livramento to Newcastle United links went off in furious fashion when the news first broke but things have gone quiet and Russell Martin seems confident he can keep the youngster at Southampton.

At one point it looked like Tino Livramento was all but signed up as a Newcastle player after lodging a £23million bid, but that talk eventually fizzled out. Since then it has been reported that Livramento would be unlikely to push for a move away from Southampton.

The feeling being that he missed so much football last season as he was just breaking into the Southampton side that he may feel he owes it to them to stick around to get them back into the Premier League.

Russell Martin dropped a not-so-subtle hint about Livramento

Livramento played in Southampton’s pre-season friendly against Goztepe at the weekend and afterwards Russell Martin spoke of the unusual role Livramento played – almost as a centre-midfielder when in possession and then operating on the flanks at other times.

Martin ended his praise of Livramento by dropping a not-so-subtle hint that he wants to keep the former Chelsea man at St Mary’s next season telling Southampton Daily Echo: “It’s just about his understanding of where he needs to be on the pitch for us and why. He won’t do it in every single game, there will be variants and different details.

“I think he is getting used to it though and I think he enjoys how much of the ball he gets, he will create a lot for us from there.

“He will still be able to get on the outside and do what he has done best, he is a really exciting player to work with, a real talent and I’m enjoying working with him. Hopefully, it will stay that way.”

Newcastle will probably be looking elsewhere already

With Livramento potentially wanting to show loyalty to Southampton after missing so much of last season and Russell Martin’s clear admiration for him, I think this is going to be a very tricky one to do.

Newcastle already tried their hand with several bids which were rebuffed and I doubt they’ll be looking to go back in with higher bids as the price will just start to get silly.

Unless something drastically changes I don’t see Tino Livramento coming to Newcastle this summer.