‘Tino, Tino’ Livramento: A glimpse of Newcastle’s future, an echo of their past
Newcastle United saw a glimpse of the future and heard a song from their past.
Not for the first time, “Tino, Tino!” echoed around St James’ Park; different players, different eras, different positions, but the same sense of wonder and endless possibility.
“I know about (Faus)Tino Asprilla and what he did here,” (Valen)Tino Livramento said. “It gave me goosebumps hearing the fans chant my name like that. It made me feel extremely proud.”
Eddie Howe’s team plough on, still in the thick of four competitions, and after wins over Brentford and Sheffield United in the Premier League, a resilient Champions League goalless draw at AC Milan and Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, momentum is their ally once again. The head coach has used his squad, mixing experience with youth, jumbling the excitement of now with the promise of what lies ahead.
Newcastle do not have the depth of Pep Guardiola’s City, but there is alchemy in the way Howe has encouraged buy-in from all corners of his dressing room. The tone of this latest victory may have shifted at half-time, when Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes came on and brought hellfire with them, but prominent among its architects were Livramento and Paul Dummett, two defenders at opposite ends of their careers.
Much has changed since the last time Newcastle faced, and beat, City in the League Cup, but Dummett also played that night at the Etihad Stadium in October 2014 (when Livramento was 11). Here he was again, throwing himself into everything, his now 32-year-old legs cramping as he did so, as eager and committed as he ever was. At right-back, Livramento was astonishingly composed, smothering Jack Grealish, tackling, breaking up play and passing smoothly.
The things that connect them?
Well, Dummett had not played since Tranmere Rovers away, also in this competition, in August 2022, but has been kept around by Howe, and given a new contract, because of his “commitment to Newcastle, the professionalism that he shows, his standards”. And for Livramento, this was his first senior 90 minutes since April 2022, the month he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury playing for Southampton.
The other link is more basic but it is the essence of Newcastle’s way, Howe’s way. “Before I joined, I looked at the squad from the outside and could see all the quality here, but it’s only when you become part of it and see it from the inside that you understand how much of a family it is,” Livramento said. “For me, it’s just a pleasure to go into training every day, to be with the team.”
He returned some of that pleasure against City; the St James’ Park crowd purred, then roared at his performance.
“It was amazing,” the 20-year-old said. “They’re definitely the best fans in the Premier League and it was a total pleasure to play in front of them. I enjoyed it. We knew how tough it was going to be defensively against City and so I focused on that part of my game. I put in a few tackles, made a few interceptions and tried to help the team as best as possible.”
As can be seen from his touch map, the majority of Livramento’s action came in his own half but he still managed to get forward and support Newcastle’s attack.
In those vivid moments, you could understand precisely why Newcastle spent £40million ($48.8m at current rates) on Livramento this summer — a player touted as England’s long-term right-back. And then you remembered anew that standing ahead of him, for club and country, is Kieran Trippier, Newcastle’s regular on-field captain, their heartbeat and the Premier League’s most effective player at their position. Melding those two concepts takes some mental gymnastics.
Signed on a five-year contract, Livramento is content to wait, watch Trippier, who turned 33 this month, and soak up knowledge.
“I’m working under a new manager for a new team and getting used to a new style of play, and I always knew it was going to take a little while for me to learn all about that and to gain his trust,” he said. “I know the position I’m in. I’ve got a fantastic player in front of me and the key is to be consistently training well and performing well when I’m given the opportunity. I want to help the team however I can.
“I’m still a young player and I’m desperate to learn from Tripps. He’s such an experienced player and before the City game he was offering me advice, telling me a few things about the players I was coming up against — he’s faced them a few times — and that definitely helped.
“Even from the sidelines when he was warming up, he was giving me encouragement, shouting things at me. ‘Get tighter, get tighter, show him down the line’, things like that. It was just little things, keeping me switched on. It’s a pleasure to share a changing room with him, to learn from him. And I’m looking to support him too, either when he’s injured or needs a rest and then take my opportunity when it comes around.”
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He grasped it last night up against Grealish. “An unbelievable player,” Howe said, “and Tino defended really, really well against him — one versus one a lot of the time. He was really aggressive and front-foot, but he dealt with him really well. The main strength of his game historically has been his attacking intent and his ability to run with the ball, and we saw flashes of that in the second half, but I thought it was a really good debut for him.
“Behind the scenes, he’s been very, very good. I don’t think you can come in and give that performance if you’re not training well and applying yourself to your work.
“He’s understood his position. He’s come back from a long injury (out over a year before coming off the bench after 77 minutes of Southampton’s final two matches of last season), so you have to take that into account. This period for him where he’s learning how the team plays is a really good moment for you if you look at it that way. Then when you get your chance you have to take it. He’s done that.”
Among Howe’s 10 changes from the weekend were three full debutants in Livramento, Lewis Hall and Lewis Miley. For the two teenagers, who made way for Gordon and Guimaraes at the break, the occasion was less exuberant but just as valuable. “They’ll both be top players for us, I have no doubt about that,” Howe said. “And sometimes with a difficult experience, you can grow a lot from that. I think it’ll be a really good thing in a couple of years what happened today.”
The big idea is that Livramento and 18-year-old Hall will develop into Newcastle’s first-choice full-backs, the club acting now to nail down those positions for years to come.
Whether that strategy pays off in the short term cannot be known. In the meantime, there will be a lot of studying Trippier and Dan Burn, a lot of work and a lot of games to be shared around. But the future shimmered brightly the other night and “Tino, Tino!” rumbled down from the stands.
