Newcastle United’s sporting director Dan Ashworth did not give much away when asked if he thought AC Milan knew about Sandro Tonali’s betting issues when they sold him.
It was confirmed last week that Tonali’s lawyers had accepted a ten-month ban on playing for their client after a plea bargain, in addition to which will be eight months of treatment his gambling addiction.
As has previously been reported, Tonali placed bets on Milan, which increased the length of the ban even if his co-operation helped massively. Milan, as has been made clear before, were not aware of Tonali’s gambling addiction and are not expecting any contact from Newcastle over the case.
Ashworth did a 45-minute briefing at Newcastle’s training ground in which reporters were invited and he addressed a number of different issues, including the Tonali case.
“What Milan knew at the point of the deal? It’s really difficult for me to get into what other clubs do or don’t know,” he said (via Fabrizio Romano).
“All we can do is look at our own internal investigation and internal process.”
Did they know? They had him a few months before it came to light?
Exactly – what goes around comes around.
If they want money back – we’ll take the player back!
If Milan knew then they probably would have accepted the first offer to get rid of the problem. For me, this is the usual media influence and nonsense. I agree with the other writer, we’ll take him back but at a cut price or swap him for krunic.