Former Southampton player Carlton Palmer has backed Tino Livramento’s decision to join his old side despite the defender having been in line to receive game time at Chelsea.
Livramento left west London for the south coast in the summer after the Saints struck a £5m deal with the European champions for his services.
Would Livramento start at Chelsea?
Yes
No
However, speaking before the two clubs met just before the international break, Thomas Tuchel revealed that he wanted to keep the 18-year-old full-back at Stamford Bridge and was ready to hand him first-team opportunities.
Even so, Palmer believes Livramento still made the correct call.
“I think he made the right decision. As a young player, you need to play,” the ex-Saint exclusively said to TIF when discussing the former Chelsea youngster.
“Tammy Abraham’s another one that they’ve let go to Roma and they’ve put a buy-back clause on him, so it’s good business by Chelsea, letting these players go. Let them play, let them become men, let them learn their trade and then obviously they’ve done good business because they put buy-back clauses on.”
With Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta a part of Tuchel’s squad, there was no guarantee that Livramento was going to play regularly. And just like with Abraham, Chelsea do indeed have a buy-back option when it comes to the right-back, so leaving Stamford Bridge was probably the wisest choice.