NUFC Blog

Sandro Tonali's Newcastle United future is under the microscope once again after links with Arsenal and Manchester United started to die down.

On Monday night, Fabrizio Romano claimed that Tottenham Hotspur were about to enter the race for the Italian midfielder.

Roberto De Zerbi apparently wants Tonali to lead his Spurs revolution after saving Tottenham from the drop last season.

The 26-year-old is apparently open to the move, according to Romano, and the Italian journalist has doubled down on his claims on his YouTube channel.

Fabrizio Romano has doubled down on Tonali claims

Romano claims that the project at Tottenham appeals to Sandro Tonali, and despite all of their struggles in recent seasons, he could be tempted by the move.

"Sandro Tonali is open to joining Tottenham. Sandro Tonali is ready to join Spurs even without European football, even after a terrible season for Tottenham Hotspur, Tonali is attracted by the project, and he wants to play for Roberto De Zerbi.

"The possibility to see Sandro Tonali at Tottenham is really serious; it's really concrete."

Tonali to Spurs makes too much sense

As the Blog's resident Tonali lover, I didn't want to entertain the idea of Tonali leaving this summer, and I was quite calm on the Arsenal and Man United rumours, but for some reason, this Spurs one feels like a worry.

Tonali just seems like a Spurs-type player, and them having an Italian coach just adds to the appeal. Moreover, the whole London thing will definitely come into play. We can see Mrs T wanting to move to the bright lights of the capital, and Sandro will likely be quite keen on that too.

The Tonali family have looked very settled in the North East, and he clearly loves being here, but Spurs ticks a lot of boxes. The stadium, the 'Big Six' appeal, an Italian coach, a practically guaranteed spot in the starting XI that he may not have got at Man United or Arsenal. This one has me worried.

If Newcastle can get a good chunk of cash for his sale and replace him quickly, then it's probably a hit we can recover from.

That being said, there are other players we should be trying to move on first before we start unravelling our Starting XI, though. Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and Nick Pope all need dealing with before we look at shifting big stars.

Newcastle United are on the hunt for a new goalkeeper for next season following some big errors from Nick Pope recently. Pope’s errors have seen him lose his place in the starting lineup to on-loan goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, but it seems the former Arsenal man hasn’t done enough to earn a permanent move, as things stand. If there were a way to combine the two into one goalkeeper, taking Pope’s shot-stopping and Ramsdale’s calmness under pressure and distribution, we’d have a decent goalkeeper on our hands. Unfortunately, a gene splicing lab isn’t part of the current setup at Benton, so the magpies are going to have to try and buy a new No 1 in the summer.

Three goalkeepers recently linked

James Trafford’s name remains in the mix after his return to Manchester City quickly turned sour when Pep Guardiola moved to bring in Gianluigi Donnarumma shortly after. Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen is another goalkeeper who has been mentioned as on Newcastle’s shortlist, as has RC Lens’ Robin Risser, who is now attracting interest from Tottenham Hotspur. The France Under-21 international has kept 10 clean sheets in 27 games this season, which is exactly the type of statistic Newcastle has been missing this season.

Newcastle have edge on Spurs in Risser race