‘I’m nothing like Asprilla – I don’t have nights out’

Tino Livramento may share chant with a Newcastle cult hero but the pair’s off-field habits bear few similarities

If you are looking for tales of training- ground bust- ups, fast cars, glamorous girlfriends and all the trimmings of an extravagant party lifestyle, this is not the interview for you.

Tino Livramento may have “stolen” his terrace chant at Newcastle United, but he is no Tino Asprilla, the colourful former Colombia international who became a cult hero on Tyneside in the Nineties.

Asprilla, who was once arrested for possession of a machine gun, was about as hedonistic as you could get as a professional footballer. A maverick on the pitch; a wild child off it. The image of him signing for Newcastle, wearing an expensive fur coat in a snowstorm, is one of the enduring images of the “Entertainers” era.

Asprilla was a headline-grabbing playboy, brilliant one minute, languid to the point of ambivalence the next. Newcastle supporters loved him, which is why the chant given to his modern-day namesake resonates. He has been at the club only a few months, but such has been his impact that chants of “Tino, Tino …” fill the air even when he warms up as a substitute.

“You can say I’m a very sensible and level-headed young man,” he says with a laugh, in anticipation of the question that follows a mention of Asprilla. “I’m not anything like him. As soon as the chant started, everyone kept telling me that I’d stolen it from him. I see it as mine until another Tino comes along.

“The chant is amazing. Being from London, they’ve taken to me so well. It’s like I’m one of their own. I’m aware of the stories about him. I’ve not done anything wild. I’m pretty boring. It has created a special bond between me and the fans. I hear it, they need to know that, every single time I hear it.

“I have my routine, I train, I go home, I rest, I eat and I go to bed. I’ve not even been for a night out in Newcastle …”

The final part of that sentence is said with a smile that suggests otherwise. At 21, it would be unusual not to sample some of the city’s nightlife, but Livramento is a serious man, and a serious talent, too.

He has been Newcastle’s best summer signing by some distance. Despite failing to replace Kieran Trippier as first- choice right-back, he excelled as an emergency leftback and has shown enough quality in his preferred position to suggest he can make it his own for club and even country.

When he was coming through the ranks at Chelsea as a boyhood fan, coaching staff insisted he was the best of his age group. Yet he left for Southampton in 2021 having failed to make a single first- team appearance. He was impatient.

“I was at Chelsea from the age of seven,” he says. “So, to leave was hard, especially before I’d played a single game, but it was the right thing for me to do.

“When I signed my first contract as a pro, I think it was for £300 a week or something like that. I couldn’t believe it. I was 16 and I thought I was living the dream. I’ll always love the club and I would have loved to play for them, but it

becue for players and staff at the Cobham training ground yesterday.

Chelsea host Leicester in the FA Cup tomorrow, with the winners playing a semi-final at Wembley.

Pochettino’s team were beaten by Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley and he has said that some did not sleep ahead of the game. He hopes the experience will help should they get there again.

The Argentine, with his staff, is attempting to help younger players

develop in “all areas of their life” as they adjust to what can be an unforgiving environment at Chelsea.

Cole Palmer has thrived under the spotlight, but Pochettino said: “At the same time that you ask me about Cole Palmer, not all the players have the same process in settling at the club or to perform. We are in a process that the main group, the main young players … of course they struggle a little bit to deal with the pressure to play for Chelsea.

“That is the thing we are aware of and we are focusing on trying to help them in all the areas. Because when you have this young squad, it’s not only to help them in training. It’s one hour and a half or two hours of training, but it’s nearly 24 hours we are thinking about how to help. If we are capable to improve or to help them in all the different areas in their life, I think afterwards the easiest thing is to help them perform on the pitch.”