It cannot be understated just how important it was that Newcastle United earned Champions League football last season.
Alongside the guaranteed boost in revenue and prize money from qualifying for club football’s top competition, it’s allowed us to keep a tight hold of some of our top players.
This, however, hasn’t stopped ‘elite’ clubs elsewhere trying to swoop in and snatch one of these players up.
But after one Premier League club’s continued pursuit for one of our most-valued players, it looks like we’ve slapped a whopping price tag on them – a clear message from the club that he’s not for sale.
According to [The Mail’s](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14885263/Newcastle-United-transfer-news-Craig-Hope-Isak-Elanga-Trafford-Livramento.html) Craig Hope, domestic rivals Man City still have a genuine interest in Tino Livramento.
Writing in his Newcastle Confidential column, Hope notes that City’s interest in the youngster is so great, they would be willing to pay “at least £65m” for his services.
But with just how good Livramento has been in 2025 so far, particularly in deputising for Lewis Hall at left-back before winning the U21 Euros with England, it looks like we have responded with an astronomical price tag.
“Not even £165m would be enough!” writes Hope, which says everything you need to know about our plans to keep the former Chelsea and Saints talent this summer.
At only 22-years-old, and likely a full-fledged starter for his country by the time the World Cup rolls around, the talented and versatile Livramento is only going to get better and better as the years go on.
But do we ‘actually’ value the former Southampton man, who cost close to £40m back in 2023, at what would be a world-record fee for a defender?
With the state of the current transfer market, it wouldn’t be a surprise. We all know just how capable City are of splashing out on defenders: Josko Gvardiol alone cost close to £100m, and the likes of Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte each cost a small fortune.
Factoring in the ‘Premier League’ and ‘English’ taxes on players like Livramento as well, coupled with our commitment to keeping the player at all costs, and a triple digit sum seems like a more than fair valuation for the fullback.
Quite simply, it would take an emphatic sum of money to find a player who can so easily replace Livramento, and the lack of quality fullbacks in world football nowadays only strengthens our hand even more in any future negotiations.