Sandro Tonali’s agent has spoken about the Italian’s departure from Newcastle United this summer in an appearance on the Collin da Maestro podcast.
Beppe Riso claimed that he and Tonali “weren’t able to achieve what Newcastle was meant to become at that time”, leading them to take the decision to leave the club.
I don’t know about you, but that feels rather ill-mannered considering he was one of the main men responsible for making it happen and he almost completely disappeared during the absence of Bruno Guimaraes when things got difficult last season.
If you wanted to leave, just say that
During the Italian’s three years on Tyneside, Tonali played in the Champions League twice and won a domestic trophy. Granted the last season didn’t go to plan, but I would suggest that’s a pretty good return for a club looking to establish itself near the top.
Tonali then left the club to sign for Tottenham Hotspur, with the move shrouded in some shady tapping-up allegations involving Roberto de Zerbi, which Tonali’s agent spoke about on the podcast, claiming there were home visits and conversations before any deal was in the works… make of that what you will.
But the most pertinent point around the Spurs move is that the club had just come off the back of two consecutive 17th-place finishes and have once again struggled this season, currently sitting bottom of the table.
So the suggestion that Tonali left Newcastle because they didn’t become the club that he and his agent expected doesn’t really make much sense when you take a look at the club he joined, does it?
There would be no problem if it was simply admitted that Tonali wanted a move to London, perhaps to earn a bit more money and live a more ‘upmarket’ lifestyle than in the North East. But for his camp to claim it was rooted in any sort of sporting reason seems rather disingenuous when you look at the facts.
Ultimately, Tonali wants Milan
To be fair, as Newcastle fans we did all know this was going to happen at some point.
From the moment things started going left last season, it was clear the Italian had checked out. He looked rather unbothered, there were murmurings being reported that he was unhappy and it was pretty clear he’d be going at the end of the season.
In fact, it was pretty clear he wouldn’t be staying long from almost the moment he joined. There was constant chatter about a return to Milan, some of which even came from Sandro himself in interviews.
Hell, in some of his first media following the Tottenham move he, in essence, said that Milan was his first choice but they couldn’t afford him so he had to settle for London.
In the end, getting £100m for a player whose heart is clearly always going to be elsewhere unless he’s playing for the red side of Milan was an excellent bit of business for the Magpies and, no matter what he or his agent says about how his time at Newcastle ended, we all know what happened and why it happened in the way it did.
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