Tino Livramento has refused to rule out the possibility of returning to Chelsea ‘one day’ but says he is completely focused on building his Southampton career following his impressive start to the season.
Livramento joined Chelsea at the age of eight and spent more than a decade at the club’s youth system, being named their Academy Player of the Year last season.
The England U21 star was named on Chelsea’s first-team bench towards the end of the 2020-21 campaign and got to experience matchdays against Arsenal and Manchester City.
Despite being highly-rated at Stamford Bridge, contract talks between Chelsea and Livramento stalled over the summer and a host of clubs – including Southampton – expressed interest in securing his signature.
A move to St Mary’s already appears to be a good one, with Livramento featuring in all seven of Southampton’s Premier League games so far this season and earning rave reviews from Ralph Hasenhuttl and Thomas Tuchel.
Prior to Chelsea’s clash with Southampton on Saturday, Tuchel revealed he wanted Livramento to stay at Stamford Bridge as the club ‘saw his potential’.
The Blues are believed to have a £25m buy-back clause for the right-back and Livramento admits he could return to Chelsea ‘one day’, though he stressed his focus right now is purely on Southampton.
Asked if he could return to Chelsea, Livramento told Mirror Sport: ‘Maybe one day, but I’m just enjoying my football at the moment at Southampton, that’s where my head’s at right now.
‘Just trying to pick up as many points as possible and improving individually.
‘It was never going to be easy. Not being with coaches that have seen me grow from seven to 18, was never going to be easy.
‘You just have to look at what is best for you and have good people around you who want what is best for you, a good agent, dad and family. Everything just fell into place.’
Livramento insists it was a ‘hard decision’ to leave Chelsea and the ‘best academy in the world’ but believes his flying start at Southampton has justified the move.
‘Regrets? It would have been nice to play a game [for Chelsea] but I had to think what was best for me,’ the teenager added.
‘Being young I’ve always wanted to just play first team football as soon as possible. I feel like if I stayed there things wouldn’t have happened as quickly as now.
‘It was a hard decision for everyone involved. They agreed that it was best for me as well and they’ve always looked after me.
‘I’ll never have a bad word to say about how Chelsea treated me growing up and developing me into the player I am today.
‘It’s probably the best academy in the world that anyone would want to go to and develop.’
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