Valentino Livramento moved to Southampton on a permanent deal in the summer transfer window in the search for regular playing time.
The Chelsea youth system has been criticised in the past for sending youth players out on a string of loans, with no wish to wean them into the first team and starting eleven.
But, Livramento has surprised both the press and fans at how good he really is at the age of 18-years-old.
Carefree Chelsea’s Jai Mcintosh and Scott Clayton spoke to Southampton reporter, Tom Leach about the start he’s made at Southampton since his move away from West London.
It turns out, he’s doing just fine...
TL: “The best thing I can say is, thank you to Chelsea for letting us have Tino Livramento. He’s unbelievable and the player I’ve spoken to Ralph Hasenhuttl about the most out of everyone in the Southampton squad this season.
“He arrived as a player who was going to sit on the bench and learn a lot from Kyle Walker-Peters, that’s what we thought. Then just as I’m tucking into a pie at Everton for the first game of the season and see the team news that Livramento is starting at right-back.
“We all looked at each other and thought okay this kid must have shown the manager something that’s impress him. Speaking after the Man City game. Hassenhuttl told me that he told Livramento essentially during the contract talks that he was going to play from the very start.
“So, even before he trained with Southampton, Hassenhuttl has scouted him. He’d watched him enough to Livramento was going to step in and was always going to play at Southampton. Now that we’ve seen him we can see what he saw.
“Positioning wise he is brilliant. He gets forward as well as Walker-Peters does, he’s a little bit more solid defensively. I’m yet to see him in a game where he’s looked not at the level that he always looks at the level to perform at.
“When you look at Southampton’s start to the season in their first seven games, they’ve played the four top five in the Premier League. I would almost go as far as to say that the better the opponent the better he’s been.
“He was brilliant against Manchester United, even better against Chelsea and even better against Manchester City."
What do you make of Conor Gallagher’s performance so far, this season? Follow our Carefree Chelsea members Scott, Jai, Tom and Renuka on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
