Newcastle United's transfer business is slowly starting to come together ahead of their first foray into the Champions League group stage in some two decades.
Sandro Tonali's imminent arrival from AC Milan is dominating headlines, while another move for a somewhat lower-profile player – albeit potentially just as exciting if the past is anything to go by – also looks set to go through.
Are Newcastle United interested in signing Tino Livramento?
According to Sky Sports' Keith Downie and Pete Graves, Newcastle are in talks with recently relegated Southampton to sign right-back Tino Livramento in a £15m deal.
The Telegraph have claimed the Saints want close to double that amount, but Newcastle could offer out-of-favour Ryan Fraser to help push through the transfer.
Landing a player as highly rated as Livramento for what is a bargain fee in the current market would be considered a coup of sorts for Newcastle, who are eager to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.
What can Tino Livramento offer Newcastle United?
Livramento is coming off the back of a hugely frustrating campaign in which he made just two Premier League appearances, totalling 26 minutes, owing to a long-term injury lay-off.
However, after coming off the substitutes' bench in Southampton's final two games, the 20-year-old will have a chance to get back to full fitness across pre-season in time to hit the ground running in 2023-24.
The Chelsea academy player, who many were surprised to see leave for Southampton two years ago, showed enough in his debut top-flight campaign to suggest he can more than provide competition for Kieran Trippier next season.
Livramento, although described as "top-class" by scout Jacek Kulig, does not have as much of an end product as Trippier – he was directly involved in just two league goals in 32 appearances in 2021-22, compared to ten for the latter – but that will likely come with age.
Besides, there are plenty of other similarities, such as the pair finding the target from a similar number of shots (25% for Livramento v 23.5% for Trippier), their pass-completion percentage (74.1 v 71.6), and the number of tackles they win (1.19 v 1.32), as per FBref.
Newcastle supporters will also need no reminding that one of their greatest-ever players – arguably second only to Alan Shearer – also moved from Southampton to St James' Park over 40 years ago.
Indeed, a certain Kevin Keegan was at a far more advanced stage of his career at that point, and had already landed a couple of Ballon d'Or titles, but the omens are certainly positive from Newcastle's perspective when choosing to invest from the Saints.
It was always Keegan's plan to play for Newcastle one day, which while that may not exactly be the case for Livramento, it will certainly provide the youngster with a huge platform to properly establish himself in the top flight.
'King Kev' scored 48 goals in 78 appearances for Newcastle and would of course later return for two spells as manager – the first stint more memorable than the second.
There is also the Shearer link, with the club's all-time leading scorer – now immortalised with a statue outside the ground – also having played for Southampton before joining Newcastle further down the line.
That is not to say Livramento is on his way to becoming one of Newcastle's all-time greats, but the Magpies have certainly had success signing players with Southampton roots in the past.
In Livramento, they have a player who looks every inch a modern-day full-back, one who is capable of initially challenging and filling in for the overused Trippier, before becoming a regular down the right for years to come.
Described as a "really talented player" by Southampton colleague Kyle Walker-Peters, it is now over to England U21 international Livramento to write his own passage in Newcastle folklore.
No pressure.
