Some of the background has emerged on how Newcastle United managed to secure the signing of Sandro Tonali from AC Milan.
The Athletic have given the full inside story on Milan’s club-record sale, which is one that has raised eyebrows around the footballing world given Tonali being a boyhood Milan fan and declaring a desire to stay ‘for the rest of my career’.
The source claims to have spoken to a senior figure at the very top of Newcastle’s hierarchy who gave information to The Athletic on condition of anonymity in order to protect relationships.
They claim that the feeling internationally is that the 23-year-old could be ‘as good as Rice, maybe better’, adding: “Similar to the Isak signing, we didn’t really think we could get him.”
“Sandro is a star at AC Milan. He lives and breathes the club. We weren’t expecting it,” he added. In the end, it was the Milan officials being in London last month to speak with Chelsea where everything unlocked.
Chelsea had spoken to the Rossoneri delegation about Tonali around the time of the Champions League semi-finals and were willing to offer up three of their players, while Liverpool were also keen.
Then, Newcastle became aware after their failed pursuit of Inter’s Nicolo Barella that the opportunity might be there to sign Tonali. If they could convince the player to leave his team, then convincing Milan would be easier.
“Things changed, so we moved accordingly,” the senior figure says. They talked about the midfielder’s skill set and character, putting their analysis forward to Yasir Al-Rumayyan – the governor of PIF – and receiving the green light to proceed.
There could be no leaks because the sacking of technical director Paolo Maldini – a club legend – meant that Milan were in a very sensitive moment and talk of selling Tonali would have gone down badly. Newcastle, meanwhile, wanted to avoid an auction.
The Athletic mention that Tonali’s move has been framed in the Italian media as being ‘Maldini vs. Moneyball, heart vs. algorithms’. RedBird Capital do have a data arm and have used Mr. Moneyball Billy Beane, so why did they decide to sell?
The algorithms ‘didn’t know Tonali’s loyalty to Milan would melt in the face of Newcastle’s offer’ as per the report, just as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s did when Paris Saint-Germain doubled his salary two years ago.
Tonali ‘saw this opportunity for what it is’ while Milan have got a record fee for an Italian player. Not only that, but they have tripled their transfer budget in the same summer they tied Rafael Leao down to a new deal.
Newcastle ‘were respectful of Milan’s circumstances’ as the senior source added: “We were aware of who we were buying from, the history of the club and the gravitas around Sandro’s position.”
Tonali agreed terms while on U21 duty with Italy and then an opening bid of €50m was made. Not long after, their transfer chiefs Ashworth and Nickson were in Milan at the Palazzo Parigi Hotel speaking with the player’s representative Beppe Riso.
They moved to finalise the deal on the players’ side before turning to Milan. The offer went up to €70m including add-ons, while Milan wanted a deal worth €80m but they did not end up getting that much.
What filters from Newcastle’s side is that they believe an initial fee of around €60m ‘represents decent value for a player of his quality’.
On Friday, Newcastle send two delegates to meet Tonali in Romania and finalise personal terms. That was when Beppe Riso returned to Italy not too long after and confirmed things were moving along.
“This is an excellent deal and Newcastle is the perfect project for Tonali. Newcastle wanted Sandro as a key signing at all costs. He will be a crucial player for the Magpies,” he said.
The final details were resolved, the Euros ended and now were are at today. Milan confirmed on their official website that Tonali has completed his move to Newcastle, sending their thanks, while the player suggested he could be back one day.
And some fans said that we forced him out.
In what multiverse you think Sandro would say “I didn’t want to go to Newcastle” just before starting his new job at Newcastle? None of us know what he thinks. Yeah he will make crazy money. Maybe he wanted to leave after living his childhood dream to play for Milan, after taking a pay cut to stay at the club, while seeing thousands of jerseys to his name at every home game. Maybe the front staff asked him to leave to get the money they don’t want to invest. Who knows?
For the love of God enough with the so called pay cut.
Tonali was at Milan on a loan in fhis first year. After that year Milan renegotiated a new transfer with Brescia and new salary with Tonali. The initial buy option they had was for a total of 30-35 mil with Tonali making 1.6 mil a season. After the year where Tonali didn’t play well his transfer end up costing Milan around 25 mil, Olzer included, and Tonali salary dropped to 1.2 mil.
His salary was lowered for 400k for only 1 season because the following year he got a new contract paying him 2.5 mi.
People act like he gave up millions to cure world hunger.
Other Milan players have given up much more money in the past.
Adil Rami payed 500k out of his own pocket before he even became a Milan player just so he can complete his transfer from Valencia.
Redondo gave up a year or 2 of his salaries because he couldn’t play cuz of injury.
Even Mandzukic , who was at Milan for a cup of coffee, gave up a whole month of his pay, equalling 300k, because he got injured after he was signed.
Yeah, hard to argue this: “The algorithms ‘didn’t know Tonali’s loyalty to Milan would melt in the face of Newcastle’s offer’ as per the report,”
Let me guess, this is once again a PR-proganda by RedBird? 😀 😀 :
Redbird is so in love with football and Milan, they couldn’t do anything to keep Sandro the greedy fck but boy they tried so much. I guess Furlani was crying in the shower to get the money to build his FUT team without investments. Everything’s going according to the plan. This mercato is marvelous so far. Everything’s fine.
The only facts you will consider are those that support your preconceived notions. You are exposed.
All that remains is to hope management use the funds from Tonali’s transfer intelligently and the team performs well next season. This window is shaping up to be our most exciting since summer 2019.
The facts: Redbird is an investment funds looking to maximize profits. Jerry didn’t know Milan won 7 UCL. The strategy now is moneyball. Jerry fired two guys who had a tremendous influence to restore Milan as a national and European contender. We had big needs for the midfield (Kessié, Bennacer) and we sold the only starter remaining, an icon of the club, fan favorite. Kamada was a sure recruit, he’s not anymore. We signed for hefty money Loftus-Cheek, a bench player, who will become a starter for us while M&M probably wanted him for the rotation.
I have to admit that maybe I focus on the bad stuff, so please give me the facts that I missed, I would love to get some optimism these days.
Who knows? Maybe Redbird and Tonali have a secret agreement that he will return on free transfer after 5 years.
Tonali said this is not a good bye but see you later.
Simple.
Tonali and his agent wanted the big EPL money.
Milan wanted the big EPL money.
Nobody forced anybody out.
Great deal for Sandro. He’ll make a fortune.
His agent will get a nice commission.
Milan gets a nice transfer kitty.
The money from this transfer, if properly used, will make Milan a better squad next season.
Everyone happy.
Good luck to Sandro
Exactly. Maybe – just maybe – everything isn’t filled with drama after all.
That’s the problem, they showed their intentions when buying RLC for 21 millions while giving him 4 millions a season contract. An injury prone bench player supposed to be an upgrade from Tonali.
Who said RLC is supposed to replace Tonali? I have yet to see such statements.
You think with 4 millions a season he will be on the bench?
I’ll repeat myself. What makes you think he’d take Tonali’s role in the starting 11? He doesn’t have any similar characteristics and cannot be deployed the same.
And it sure looks like Pioli is about to do a revolution in the midfield anyway.
Exactly. It’s a great deal for all parties involved. Let’s hope we use the funds to have an even better squad this season.
Newcastle only loan Sandro for 5 years with loan fee of €14m per year. He will return with us at his peak age.
Paid in front 🤣
“The algorithms ‘didn’t know TONALI ’S LOYALTY TO MILAN WOULD MELT IN THE FACE OF NEWCASTLE ’S OFFER ’ as per the report, just as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s did when Paris Saint-Germain doubled his salary two years ago.”
Gigio $umma = $andro Tonali.
At least we didn’t lose Tonali for nothing.
So are we trusting the chronology presented by the Athletic over the chronology presented by Di Marzio/Romano?
Yes. The Athletic is actually quite reliable. Remember Di Marzio said this was a non story when Athletic was wayyyy out in front of everyone on it. Di Marzio has to eat humble pie on this one
What about Romano? He was the one who got the transfer fee correct.
The Athletic just debunked themself in Pulisic story.
The what story?
Both Romano and Di Marzio were slow for the Tonali story. That’s the point. It’s not corseta, Calciomercato etc
The Athletic said Lyon offer 25m for Pulisic only to debunk it themself in the same day.
It is clear that Cardinale and the Milan management needed to come out of this transfer looking as if, it was all Tonali’s decision, after how they handled Maldini exits and our current transfer campaign, which is mediocre at best. Either way, had the management done their homework and didn’t rush the sale, we would have gotten a lot more for Tonali.
lovely piece of fan fiction written by a newcastle fan, designed to show how they beat 2 premier league rivals to his signature and that he is eager to join for the “sporting project”. He joined for 9m a season and 70-80m to the club. I especially liked the “The algorithms ‘didn’t know Tonali’s loyalty to Milan would melt in the face of Newcastle’s offer”. clowns.
If you reed the full “article” its very clear that when Milan was in London they checked with Chelsea if they were still interested in Tonali and Newcastle got to know about it and started to try to get Tonali.
Im content with the money we got from the sale but absolute discussed with how Milan try to sell him.
This started with Milan wanting to sell the player and then the player feeling underappreciated and started negotiations with Newcastle.
Some of you commenting are pushing your mantra “he could have rejected”, yes he could have rejected but if the club already rejected you why would he ?
I hope you have the same energy when one of the starplayers pushes for leaving the club and the club is forced to accept a low bid when that gets known to other clubs.
Do not say “the club could have rejected it”.