Chelsea left ruing Livramento sale AGAIN after PSG performance
Cameron Smith
- 28 Nov 2023 22:10 GMT
- 4 min read
Chelsea never wanted to sell Valentino Livramento, but they were forced to sell the young Englishman due to his desire for regular first-team football.
The now 21-year-old was regarded extremely highly at Cobham and he won Chelsea’s Academy Player of the Season award for the 2020-21 season, but the presence of Reece James ultimately drove him to the exit door.
James is now club captain at Stamford Bridge and is largely considered to be one of the world’s best right-backs when fit. The problem is that injury issues have plagued the England international in recent seasons.
That fact was the reason why Malo Gusto was signed from Olympique Lyonnais during the January window - a transfer that would never have been necessary if Livramento had been integrated into the first-team and presented with a pathway to regular football for Chelsea.
His desire to leave followed the success of Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori’s decisions to depart the Blues and Livramento has reaped the rewards of exiting his boyhood club too.
The first taste of success came at Southampton as Livramento established himself as one of the Premier League’s most talented defenders, providing great value at both ends of the pitch.
An ACL injury severely disrupted his progress, but the Chelsea academy graduate still earned a €37.2 million summer move to Newcastle United.
Livramento had to bide his time for a chance at St James’ Park, but an injury to Dan Burn left the left-back slot vacant and his versatility ensured he was trusted to fill that void by Eddie Howe.
Since then, he has been nothing short of spectacular and a controversial penalty given against him versus PSG should not take away from how good Livramento was on Tuesday night.
Livramento shines against PSG
Faced against a double-act of Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi, Livramento dominated that flank and prevented almost everything down that side of the pitch.
He was penalised for a very dubious handball decision in second-half stoppage time, and Livramento’s performance should not be defined by that call and should instead be remembered for an epic display on just his second ever Champions League appearance.
Livramento made four clearances, made three tackles, two interceptions and won five of his six ground duels. Furthermore, he was at the heart of Alexander Isak’s opener by dancing through multiple PSG challenges on the edge of the penalty area with the utmost ease before laying the ball off wide to Miguel Almiron.
Alexander Isak scores the opener in Paris ✨
What a crucial goal that could prove to be for Newcastle...#UCL pic.twitter.com/K7Q2Rl2Eq4— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 28, 2023
His attacking attributes were on full show during the aforementioned season in Chelsea’s academy and that dribbling sequence was full evidence of his ability.
In terms of his defending, Dembele was wasteful, sure, but Livramento was responsible for shutting the Frenchman down and limiting PSG to very few chances down his side.
Chelsea didn’t want to sell Livramento, but it was arguably their fault for not proving there was a first-team pathway for him and they’ve felt the effects of that since.
Marc Cucurella has been Mauricio Pochettino’s starting left-back this season and while the Spaniard has improved following a poor first campaign at Chelsea, he is still a liability and Livramento would quite simply be a better option, despite the fact he’s a natural right-back.
While Newcastle and Livramento are impressing on the Champions League stage - and beating Chelsea 4-1 - the Blues are experiencing yet more inconsistency despite signs of promise in recent weeks.
