Newcastle's Tino Livramento (Image: Owen Humphreys)
Newcastle's Tino Livramento (Image: Owen Humphreys)
NEWCASTLE have been handed a major boost ahead of the Premier League season with Tino Livramento back in training.
Sunday's opener against Liverpool might well come too soon, but the fact Livramento is closing in on a return to action is welcome good news for Matthias Jaissle, and will further add to his options at full-back after this week's arrival of Amar Dedic.
Livramento has been out of action since suffering a calf injury in the middle of June which forced him to pull out of the England World Cup squad.
Newcastle will be cautious with Livramento and won't rush his return. The defender only managed to make 14 Premier League starts and 17 league appearances in total last term because of injury setbacks.
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But Livramento is a hugely important figure, and although he's only 23 he also has vast experience and will be one of those who will be encouraged to step up as a leader this term after the exits of Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali.
After completing his move to Newcastle on Tuesday, Dedic is likely to go straight into the starting XI for the opener against Liverpool. It will help the Bosnian international that he's worked with Jaissle before and knows what the head coach expects and demands.
The signing of Dedic was a big boost for Newcastle, who desperately needed to strengthen at full-back after the exits of Trippier and Emil Krafth in the summer, but the priority now is replacing Bruno in midfield.
It emerged this week that Manchester City's Nico Gonzalez is one of the players in Newcastle's thinking, with exploratory talks between the clubs having taken place.
Gonzales said earlier this summer that he had no intentions of leaving Manchester City but regular game-time at the Etihad might be hard to come by for the 24-year-old, who only started two Premier League games after the end of January last season.
The former Spain Under-21 international joined City in January last year when Rodri was out injured and featured prominently in his early months at the club.
Newcastle want a midfielder with Premier League experience to replace Bruno, who completed his move to Arsenal earlier this month. Gonzalez, comfortable on the ball and physical, has played 36 Premier League games for City.
He's one of a number of midfield options to have been discussed by club officials and talks have taken place with City.
Ideally, Newcastle wanted a new midfielder through the door ahead of the Liverpool game.
Jasissle will be desperate to get off to a good start but has already admitted Newcastle won't be at their "peak" on Sunday, which was echoed by new club captain Dan Burn.
He insisted the players feel "very ready", but added: "Listen, we're not going to peak against Liverpool, I think the manager said that, it'll take time to embed the things he wants to do, because there's always differences with managers and the way they want to do things.
"We've probably not had as much training time as we would have liked, so we've got a good week this week, and I'm sure we'll learn a lot.
"From the two games [at the weekend] I'm confident that we'll be ready for Liverpool, and I don't think you need any motivation for a Liverpool home game, for either us or the city."