Sandro Tonali has moved quickly to dismiss suggestions of a breakdown with Eddie Howe, insisting his working relationship with the Newcastle United manager is “perfect” and underlining that any decision on his future will hinge on the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
The midfielder\u2019s agent recently raised speculation about a potential exit and suggested Newcastle were resisting a move. Reports of a rift were undermined visibly when Tonali celebrated his second goal in Saturday\u2019s 3\u20131 win over Aston Villa alongside Howe.<\/p>\n
“I came to Eddie because in the past few weeks, people spoke about our relationship, but I work every day with the gaffer, the gaffer works every day with me, and our relationship is perfect,” Tonali insisted. “It\u2019s not broken and I think this is perfect for the team.<\/p>\n
“We try to do the best for this team, every game, because we play a lot of games\u2014every three days, we play, and we have to be concentrated every time in the training ground to do the best for our team.” <\/p>\n
Beyond the public reassurance, the practical factors that will determine Tonali\u2019s next step are clear. His agent has emphasised that playing in the Champions League is a priority. Newcastle are competing in Europe\u2019s top competition this season but have slipped to 10th in the Premier League and sit eight points adrift of the Champions League places with 12 games remaining.<\/p>\n
Tonali is 25 and contracted until 2028, meaning this summer is likely Newcastle\u2019s last realistic opportunity to sell him at full value. That is significant given the club\u2019s ongoing comments about its battle with Profit and Sustainability Rules.<\/p>\n
Interested clubs will therefore monitor Newcastle\u2019s results closely. Arsenal represent a strong European option but face competition in Tonali\u2019s position from Declan Rice and Mart\u00edn Zubimendi, with Martin \u00d8degaard and Mikel Merino adding further depth. At Manchester United, departures for Casemiro and potential exits for Manuel Ugarte could leave Kobbie Mainoo as the only senior midfielder and open a clearer path to regular minutes for a new signing.<\/p>\n
For Tonali, the priority remains a move that advances both his European ambitions and his role on the pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tonali calls his relationship with Eddie Howe ‘perfect’ as suitors watch Newcastle’s season. Update.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,1163],"tags":[983,1047,1379],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newcastle-united","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-champions-league","tag-club-structure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","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=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}