Transfer News: Tuchel tried to keep teenage starlet before Chelsea summer exit

Thomas Tuchel tried to keep Tino Livramento before his Chelsea exit

According to The Athletic (h/t Express), Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel tried their best to keep a hold of Tino Livramento. However, the youngster felt that opportunities might be hard to come by due to senior players and decided to switch to Southampton. So far, he has been vindicated over his decision.

The recently concluded transfer window saw a worrying pattern. While Chelsea managed to offload players like they might have wanted, the huge exodus of academy talent leaving raised some question marks. Chelsea ended up with huge sales and made a profit of £135 million but what’s worrying is £90 million of that sum was from Chelsea’s academy players and graduates.

The biggest of sales saw Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi depart the club for more game time. A certain Tino Livramento also took matters into his own hands and refused to pen a new deal at Chelsea. He felt that players such as Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta would be an obstacle to his first-team chances.

Chelsea’s academy player of 2020 then made the switch to Southampton before even playing a single game for the Blues. At Southampton, he started all three league games so far which has put questions on Chelsea. However, the Blues and Tuchel wanted to keep the player and tried their best for months to commit him to a new deal (h/t Express).

More Chelsea News

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• Julen Lopetegui provides update on why Jules Kounde did not join Chelsea this summer
• Chelsea close to getting a deal over the line for 14-year-old Shaun Wade

It has proven to be a bit of a shift in the whole squad dynamics under Tuchel where youngsters such as Callum Hudson-Odoi have suffered a bit for game time. On the other hand, it is hard to question Tuchel as well given his Champions League win. Whether this was just for this season or the precedent has been set is unknown but it does not bode well as other youngsters could think twice before penning senior deals with Chelsea.