Tottenham Hotspur have again broken their transfer record to sign midfielder Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United, a deal that completes a notable midfield investment under new manager Roberto De Zerbi.<\/p>\n
Tonali said the choice was straightforward. “I\u2019m very happy to be here,” he told club media. “When I arrived at the Club today, it felt fantastic. People said about there being four or five clubs\u2014there was only one.<\/p>\n
“I spoke to the Head Coach for close to two hours about the Club, the fans, the stadium and our football. It was like magic because I knew immediately that I had to sign for Tottenham. I\u2019ve played against Tottenham a few times and always found a great atmosphere made by great fans. I can\u2019t wait to start the season.”<\/p>\n
De Zerbi welcomed the signing and explained his long-term interest. “Sandro is a special player and a great signing for our Club.<\/p>\n
“I have followed him for a long time, as he came through the youth system at my hometown club, Brescia, and I\u2019m so happy to be working with him now. Given his qualities, there was a lot of interest in Sandro this summer. However, he was very clear in his desire to join Tottenham, and I know our fans will love what he brings to the team.” <\/p>\n
The arrival of Tonali is part of a wider squad rebuild overseen by De Zerbi, who reunited with former Brighton & Hove Albion center back Jan Paul van Hecke before directing a significant midfield spend. Fernandes has been given the No. 18 shirt, and Tonali will wear No. 16.<\/p>\n
The No. 16 represents a change for Tonali at club and international level. He has spent the majority of his senior career wearing the No. 8 shirt, apart from his time at Brescia when he wore No. 4. The club and manager will now look to integrate Tonali as they prepare for the season ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sandro Tonali says Tottenham was his only option after a two-hour meeting; he will wear shirt No. 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669,172],"tags":[1081,983,1162],"class_list":["post-16478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-football","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16478","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=16478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}