Roberto De Zerbi has identified Sandro Tonali as Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s primary midfield target as the club looks to rebuild following a perilous run last season. Spurs were perilously close to succumbing to a stunning relegation, with only the work of De Zerbi after he was appointed at the end of March steering them clear of West Ham United and the Championship abyss.<\/p>\n
Tottenham have already moved in the market, signing Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi from Liverpool and Bournemouth on free transfers. The acquisition of Tonali would be regarded internally as a clear statement of intent and one engineered by De Zerbi, who holds considerable power in N17 after steering the club to safety.<\/p>\n
Newcastle United are expected to make a major decision on their squad this summer as they embark on a mini-reset. While Eddie Howe remains in the picture, Anthony Gordon has moved on to pastures new with Barcelona and Tonali could soon follow the Englishman out the door.<\/p>\n
Tonali has been linked previously with Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United, but multiple sources state Spurs have now entered the race. The Athletic\u2019s David Ornstein is among those to report that Spurs and the player\u2019s entourage have held “positive talks”, though there has not yet been any contact with Newcastle, who are expected to demand a mega fee for the former AC Milan star\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
The Magpies value Tonali highly and may force Spurs to pay as much as \u00a385 million ($114 million). Newcastle paid AC Milan \u00a355 million ($74 million) in 2023, so a sale would produce a sizeable profit for them. Spurs are said to be further advanced in talks than other suitors.<\/p>\n
Tonali, the 26-year-old, is not the pass-first, build-up orchestrator some expect, but he contributes across the pitch. He is strong out of possession and more forceful in that phase. Early-career Andrea Pirlo comparisons proved to be erroneous, but Tonali has become underrated with the ball. Having helped resurrect Tottenham\u2019s engine room down the stretch, De Zerbi believes he could get the best from the player, who grew up in Lodi, Lombardy, an hour\u2019s drive from Brescia where the manager was born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
De Zerbi has identified Sandro Tonali as Spurs’ priority target after rescue mission last season…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,1752],"tags":[983,220,506],"class_list":["post-14520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epl","category-spurs","tag-agents","tag-andy-robertson","tag-anthony-gordon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}