{"id":624595,"date":"2023-06-22T02:56:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T06:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=624595"},"modified":"2023-06-22T02:56:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T06:56:32","slug":"newcastle-close-sign-sandro-tonali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/06\/22\/newcastle-close-sign-sandro-tonali\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle Close to \u00a360 Million Agreement for Midfielder Once Dubbed &#8216;The New Andrea Pirlo&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After qualifying for Champions League football, it appears that Newcastle United are looking to upgrade their midfield. The Magpies&#8217; current biggest target is 23-year-old Italian Sandro Tonali. <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4627390\/2023\/06\/21\/newcastle-sandro-tonali-transfer-milan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic<\/a> reports that Newcastle and AC Milan are close to an agreement for a fee in the region of \u00a360 million.<\/p>\n<h2>Newcastle&#8217;s Sandro Tonali Move Almost Finalised<\/h2>\n<p><a id=\"0COVsL3nQwtcOBPEscfVpw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1496411261\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'0COVsL3nQwtcOBPEscfVpw',sig:'f00e0w7f6xfLm2Cd0EmwVpLmP7YtEiEdvkn0h4RM7Ok=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1496411261',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Kind of Player is Sandro Tonali?<\/h3>\n<p>Over the past two seasons, Tonali has proved to be a versatile player that can comfortably compete at the top level. While he was more of a playmaker in his younger years, the Italian is now an all-around midfielder. He possesses both the physical and technical capabilities to take on almost any role in the centre of the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/06\/17\/liverpool-looking-to-sign-midfielder-nicolo-barella\/\" target=\"_self\">&#8216;Will Sign&#8217;: Fabrizio Romano Reveals Liverpool Transfer Plan After Reports \u20ac50 Million Newcastle Deal Is Close<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In his time at Milan, Tonali has mainly played as a defensive midfielder in a double pivot. Though more of a lone <em>regista<\/em> in his time at Brescia, he&#8217;s turned the new role into his own, contributing heavily in both the attacking and defensive phases of the game. This season he raked up a total of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/261047\/sandro-tonali\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two goals and nine assists<\/a>, while also leading the entire Champions League in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/leagues\/42\/stats\/season\/17697\/players\/big_chance_created\/champions-league-players\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">big chances created<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When out of possession, he can be characterised as a hard-working ball-winner, with the young midfielder drawing comparisons to Gennaro Gattuso.<\/p>\n<h3>How Would Tonali Fit Into Newcastle&#8217;s Team?<\/h3>\n<p>For Tonali, a move to Newcastle would be a return to his three-man midfield roots. The young Italian, who was once dubbed &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/1474175\/newcastle-ac-milan-sandro-tonali-transfer\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the new Andrea Pirlo&#8221;,<\/a>\u00a0would likely slot into the lineup as the sole defensive midfielder. This could give Bruno Guim\u00e3res the license to play higher up as a number eight, and add quality depth to Newcastle&#8217;s talented midfield.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/06\/14\/newcastle-push-sign-nicolo-barella\/\" target=\"_self\">Intensive Talks Taking Place: Newcastle &#8216;Pushing Hard&#8217; to Sign \u00a3154k Per Week Star\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While already playing in an attacking, high-pressing system, Tonali will likely have an easy time adapting to Eddie Howe&#8217;s style of play. As we wait and see how the deal pans out, there is no doubt that Newcastle signing Sandro Tonali would be a highly beneficial move.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.m.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?search=Newcastle+United+stadium+&amp;title=Special:MediaSearch&amp;type=image\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Featured image: wiki media Commons\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After qualifying for Champions League football, it appears that Newcastle United are looking to upgrade their midfield. The Magpies&#8217; current biggest target is 23-year-old Italian Sandro Tonali. The Athletic reports that Newcastle and AC Milan are close to an agreement for a fee in the region of \u00a360 million. Newcastle&#8217;s Sandro Tonali Move Almost Finalised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4687,"featured_media":624639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1267,1363,2,3,5],"tags":[9707,3815],"class_list":["post-624595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newcastle-united","category-ac-milan","category-featured","category-premier-league","category-serie-a","tag-newcastle-transfer-rumours","tag-sandro-tonali"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4687"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}