Tino Livramento eight point checklist – Manchester City and Newcastle United | OneFootball

I was interested to read the recent article on The Mag, featuring comments from Manchester City fans regarding the media claims that their club are trying to sign Tino Livramento.

Two things stood out for me.

One was that there were a reasonable amount of people on that thread who were saying that Tino wouldn’t leave Newcastle United for various reasons.

The second stand out thing though, was the delusion shared by many, that a “deal” could be done involving Jack Grealish plus cash.

I’m not the least bit surprised that the Manchester City fans – or fans of any top team – would love their club to buy Tino. He’s young, exciting, plays on either side of the pitch and looks nailed on to become England’s right back for years to come.

Where transfer dealing is concerned, things are rarely, if ever, simple.

For a start, both sides need to want the deal. That should really read “all three sides”, the two negotiating clubs and the player.

Where Manchester City are concerned, I’m sure they would love to have Tino on their books but are they actively looking at him? Has anyone seen a shred of credible evidence that this is the case or just rumours on dubious sites and home-produced YouTube channels? Not to mention a small outbreak of bed-wetting in Magland.

More importantly, what about Newcastle United?

Why on earth would we even consider selling one of our star players, a young lad who looks set to be not only our right (or left!) back for many years to come but also England’s. Our PSR situation is improving and we are in a position to strengthen the squad this summer – not seriously weaken it.

Tino has three years left on his current contract so there is no pressure on the club to sell. I fully expect the Board to be looking at tying him down for even longer and rewarding his contribution to the team’s performance last season with a nice pay rise.

Most importantly, what about Tino himself? He’s a 22 year old lad who has overcome a very serious injury to re-establish himself as a top English prospect in the Premier League. He’s come into a club with the incumbent England right back (and left when necessary) in place ahead of him.

He has clearly benefited from working alongside Kieran Tripper and has slowly but surely established himself as Eddie Howe’s no.1 pick. Although circumstances forced a move across the park to cover for Lewis Hall, he has handled that responsibility superbly – so much so that he’s actually currently playing left back for the England Under 21s at the Euro Finals in Slovakia.

What will Tino have said to himself on his switch from Chelsea talent farm, via Southampton, to Newcastle United? He must have had a list of objectives in mind which he could tick off as they, hopefully, came to fruition.

I imagine his list – maybe stuck on Tino’s fridge with a magnet – may well look like this:

Get fully fit – check

Be happy with my game – check

Have a good relationship with teammates – check

Work with a top manager – check

Get into the first team – check

Play Champions League – check

Win something – check

Get into the England team – check

Everything he could have wanted to happen to him has done so and probably even quicker than he could have hoped for. He’s a first choice player in à Champions League club, a senior figure in the National Under 21 team and – judging by the England Coach’s praise for him – absolutely nailed on to progress into the Senior squad when the current tournament ends. What is there left to move for?

The other, quite ludicrous, proposition discussed amongst the Manchester City fans, was the idea of Jack Grealish becoming the carrot dangled under our noses along with the princely sum of £20 million or so.

Where do you start?

I like Jack Grealish. He was a great player in his pomp and seems, behind the odd drunken caper, to be a pretty nice and down to earth fellow. But he turns 30 in September, clearly well past his best and would be competing for a starting berth with two young and hungry left sided players in Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes.

If that isn’t enough, the final nail in this “deal’s” coffin is his wage. Grealish is on an eye watering £300,000 a week which is almost double Bruno’s wage – our highest earner reportedly on a relatively modest £160,000 a week.

What universe do these people inhabit who imagine that a club which has been struggling to control its PSR deficit is even remotely interested in taking on even a pared-back package of that magnitude to smash the wage structure carefully established over the last three seasons?

To quote an unruly and obnoxious American kid who we once found ourselves poolside with whilst on holiday – “It ain’t gonna happen, Ma!”