Tottenham have confirmed their £100million signing's new shirt number and it hints that another transfer arrival has already chosen his one
Sandro Tonali will wear the number 16 shirt for Tottenham Hotspur after his £100million transfer from Newcastle which leaves a key number open for Jan Paul van Hecke.
Spurs will pay Newcastle £92.5million and then potentially another £7.5million in add-ons in a club record deal for the 26-year-old midfielder. He arrives on a long-term contract, believed to be a six-year deal, and has been assigned the number 16 shirt for the coming Premier League season under Roberto De Zerbi.
Tonali normally wears the number eight and has done so for the past seven seasons at both Newcastle and AC Milan, and also does so for the Italian national team.
However, Conor Gallagher claimed that number earlier this summer after Yves Bissouma's exit from the club was confirmed, meaning Tonali has got 16, which was briefly held by young centre-back Luka Vuskovic, who is set to make a £50million move to Brighton. Before that attackers Timo Werner and Arnaut Danjuma both had the number and defenders who have worn it in competitive matches most recently are Kyle Walker-Peters and Kieran Trippier.
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Tonali taking the number 16 might just hint that Van Hecke, who was signed last month for £52million from Brighton, will be taking the number six shirt that we now know will not be taken again by Joao Palhinha, after Spurs' signings of Tonali and Mateus Fernandes. The 30-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder said his goodbyes on Instagram when it became clear that his loan move would not be being made permanent.
Van Hecke wore the number six shirt last season at Brighton and wears it for the Netherlands, including at the World Cup before the Dutch exited the competition.
That number was previously worn by Radu Dragusin, who later switched to the number three and is set to leave the club for Fiorentina on loan with an obligation to buy which could reach £21.4m (25m euros) if he hits a set amount of games, plus a 10% sell-on on any profit the Serie A side should make on the Romanian with a later sale. Before him, Davinson Sanchez held the number six shirt for five seasons.
Tonali not taking that number would hint that Van Hecke has already made his claim for the shirt and the club were waiting for Dragusin's departure.
Marcos Senesi has taken the number five for Spurs while Andy Robertson wore 26 throughout his years at Liverpool. No Tottenham player has held that number since former captain Ledley King, with 26 unofficially having been kept aside since his retirement 14 years ago in 2012. So we will find out in the coming weeks whether the Scot will finally be the man to take that number or if he will choose Dragusin's three.