Sandro Tonali’s second act for Newcastle United should begin at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground on Wednesday.
After a 10-month suspension for betting offences, the Italy international is racing against lost time and has told people at the club he is determined to make amends by winning trophies.
Tonali was the statement signing last summer who rapidly became a mishap. “The right player, the right character, the right position, the right fit,” a leading source told The Athletic last year (like others quoted in this piece, they spoke anonymously to discuss club strategy). Shortly afterwards, it went wrong, and a leading figure at St James’ Park said bluntly: “Sandro’s ban has absolutely f***** us.”
That unguarded comment came at the height of Newcastle’s struggle with injuries, when the sight of Tonali training every day was a morale-sapping reminder of what they were obliged to do without. The comment did not reflect the club’s supportive attitude towards their £55million ($72.6m at current rates) signing from AC Milan.
Newcastle believe the returning ‘Tonali 2.0’ is a significant upgrade. He speaks English well and is settled. The next step for the 24-year-old — better late than never — is to become integral.
Second time around, Newcastle “have a quicker and better player”, another source told us. “He will be a difference-maker.”
Thursday, October 12. Everyone inside Newcastle remembers where they were when Tonali’s betting became public knowledge. Dan Ashworth, the club’s sporting director at the time, was still struggling to process what was happening when he called head coach Eddie Howe to relay allegations emerging in the player’s native Italy. “It was a total surprise to me, to him, to everybody,” Howe said.
Tonali was on international duty at the time but, alongside Nicolo Zaniolo, a fellow midfielder then at Premier League rivals Aston Villa on loan from Galatasaray in Turkey, he departed Italy’s training camp after being told he was being investigated by prosecutors in his homeland. Tonali was accused of gambling on matches from 2021-22 through to 2023-24, including bets made after his move to Newcastle was completed.
Tonali training with Italy on the day news of his gambling broke (Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
After admitting to betting and cooperating fully — his agent, Giuseppe Riso, said his client suffered a “gambling illness” — Tonali was handed an 18-month suspension by the Italian Football Federation, eight months of which were commuted. The ban included eight months of rehabilitation as well as therapy and called on him to make 16 public appearances at Italian amateur clubs, federal training centres and addiction charities. Tonali was also fined €20,000 (£16,900/$22,500 at current rates).
In April, the English FA handed Tonali a further two-month suspended ban, a £20,000 fine and a warning about his future conduct for gambling on football matches between August 12 and October 12 last year. Tonali faced 50 alleged counts of placing bets, four on Newcastle matches, at least three of which he played in, and all for his side to win.
The suspended period of that two-month FA ban extends until the end of this season but, as of tomorrow (Wednesday, August 28), Tonali will be available to play for the first time since coming on as a second-half substitute against Borussia Dortmund in a Champions League group game on October 25.
Howe has described this summer’s transfer window as “the most difficult I’ve experienced” and Newcastle’s first-choice team is yet to be strengthened as Friday night’s deadline nears, but getting Tonali back will offer a measure of compensation.
The suspended Italian embraced a training plan that has kept him involved and motivated. It was tailored to tweak his game to better suit Howe’s demands, something that took others (notably January 2023 signing Anthony Gordon) time to adjust to.
Speed is a huge part of what Tonali has been working on at the club’s Benton training ground. Exercises monitored by a speed coach have helped him accelerate, decelerate, change direction and sprint at maximum output. Tonali’s running style was filmed and subtle adjustments were made to his action to improve its efficiency.
There has been extensive work with Newcastle’s sports science team, resulting in a bespoke weight-training programme. His endurance was established as an area for improvement — crucial, given Howe’s all-in approach. There have been regular individual and double sessions on days when the rest of the squad have rested or had time off. “His training performances have steadily improved and got even better the closer he’s got to his return,” Howe said last week.
All of this would have been of limited benefit if Tonali had sulked or not been willing to embrace this training regimen, but multiple people have attested to his “brilliant” attitude. As the months have turned to weeks and then mere days until he was cleared to return, Tonali has been repeating a mantra to his team-mates: “We’re nearly there.”
“Mentally, he’s been excellent,” Howe said. “He’s very low-maintenance. He’s been really supportive, making sure the team’s in the right place ahead of (worrying about) himself.”
Howe expects Tonali “to get up to speed pretty quickly” but nothing can replicate playing regularly and Tonali was not allowed to take part in any structured, FA-sanctioned matches. His only action has come via training games or unofficial friendlies without referees, such as one against Burnley of the Championship in July.
“There’s been no way to get him the games that he needs,” Howe said. “It’s been smaller than a match, unless we’re doing 11 vs 11 in training, but not with the regularity he needs. It will probably take him a while to get to his very best levels.”
Tonali with Howe at this summer’s pre-season training camp in Germany (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United/Getty Images)
To understand the level of expectation, it is worth revisiting why Newcastle signed him.
When Howe declared that he “fell in love” while watching the Italian, he was not slipping into uncharacteristic hyperbole. He consistently expressed that sentiment in private during Newcastle’s six-month pursuit, repeatedly professing to his staff that he was besotted with how Tonali played the game.
It was Tonali’s performances in the 2022-23 Champions League that impressed Newcastle most. The intensity of those matches is more comparable with Premier League games than those in Italy’s Serie A top flight, and Tonali shone during Milan’s run to the semi-finals.
In Howe’s mind, this was the elite player Newcastle required as they prepared to return to Europe’s top competition. Tonali, Howe was convinced, would take Newcastle to the next level in and out of possession.
Heading into the summer of 2023, the head coach had told his scouts to find a midfielder capable of playing as a No 6 and a No 8 to a first-rate standard. Most top-level midfielders excel in one of those positions, but finding an outstanding dual-role type also available at a price Newcastle could afford in an inflated market was challenging.
Although some supporters pushed for a pure holding midfielder to liberate Bruno Guimaraes to play as a No 8, Howe views the Brazilian as his ideal No 6; he does not want a deep-lying defensive player, but an influential technician, and that meant sourcing a versatile midfielder who could complement and cover for the Brazilian.
It was Andy Howe, now Newcastle’s assistant head of recruitment, who strongly championed Tonali internally and, together with his uncle Eddie, pushed hard for his acquisition.
The head coach envisaged Tonali primarily playing as a right-sided No 8 and Guimaraes as the No 6, but with them able to interchange, making Newcastle more fluid and unpredictable on the ball. But, given how crucial the latter is to the team, Howe also wanted a ball-playing alternative, in case of injury or suspension — or as a contingency should Guimaraes move on, given he was attracting interest from Europe’s top clubs.
A season’s worth of scouting reports — many conducted while watching Milan live — confirmed Tonali was the ideal fit.
In possession, he was deemed technically proficient, comfortable using both feet, excellent at dead-ball delivery, tactically intelligent, able to provide clever switches in play and a dynamic, driving runner. Without the ball, he was seen as powerful, physically robust and capable of making great recovery runs. As Milan’s captain, Tonali’s leadership credentials — which he displays more through actions than words — were also attractive. Checks on his character were exemplary.
Yet Howe also saw significant room for improvement, which he outlined to Tonali when making his pitch for him to join Newcastle. He told him that, under his tutelage, he could transform the midfielder into one of Europe’s best. Tonali was taken by Howe’s honesty and persistence.
Had Newcastle failed to qualify for last season’s Champions League, the deal would not have happened; yet once they did, a six-week charm offensive, led by Howe, persuaded Tonali to agree to spend his prime years in England. Those conversations were crucial in enticing the midfielder to Tyneside from his boyhood club, where his father Giandomenico is a season ticket holder.
Ashworth led negotiations and a £55million deal was struck — a record for an Italian player. Inside Newcastle, the transfer was celebrated. Senior figures described Tonali as a “marquee addition” that they had been unsure was attainable. While the fee was the second-most expensive in the club’s history, it was less than half the £115m Chelsea paid Brighton & Hove Albion for midfielder Moises Caicedo later that summer. Given his greater experience than the then-21-year-old Ecuadorian, Tonali was deemed a relative bargain.
Although the signing has been questioned internally over the past 10 months, with an investigation into whether the club should have uncovered Tonali’s gambling while carrying out background checks, coaches are adamant he will be a long-term success.
Having watched Tonali up close for a season, Howe is certain he chose the right player.
After turning 24 in May, and with four years left on his contract (and the option of a fifth included in its terms), Tonali has time to prove that faith is well placed.
From the start, Newcastle showered Tonali with love.
There was that extraordinary moment after the 4-0 victory against Crystal Palace on October 21 (his most recent domestic appearance) when, with his ban looming, Tonali was ushered forward by his team-mates to accept a full-throated, emotional ovation in front of the Gallowgate End, a reception which made a lasting impression.
Coach Graeme Jones with Tonali after the Palace match in October (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
“That meant so much to him,” Amanda Staveley, one of the club’s co-owners during much of his ban, told The Athletic. “The way he was embraced by fans created something special.”
Internally, the message was the same. Tonali had been a high-quality signing and his suspension represented a huge blow to Newcastle’s hopes of competing across four competitions — particularly when that savage rash of injuries kicked in — but there was no judgement or anger. He was wrapped in a support network.
“There was never any blame and no recriminations,” Staveley said. “It was important he felt no shame. What he has suffered from is a disease and we didn’t want him to feel any stigma. I said, ‘You’ve come to a club where the fans will love you. You have come to the best place to get the most support. We’ll help get you through this and we’re going to be here for you. All of us’.
“It was important that we spent time with him. We invited him and his lovely partner out for dinner and introduced him to people. We made sure he was seen with us in the chairman’s suite at St James’, so that everybody could see and know that he was absolutely supported, particularly when there was all that media attention.”
Other parts of the stadium remained off-limits to Tonali; his ban kept him away from “red zone” areas on matchdays, such as the pitch itself, the tunnel, the dressing rooms and other technical areas. That’s why he was not included in Newcastle’s famous post-victory dressing-room group photographs.
Tonali’s attitude, and those of the people around him, made everything easier. He approached the club directly about taking a pay cut and according to a source familiar with the matter, “He said, ‘I should, I need to’, which just gives you a great insight into him as a human being.” Tonali’s submission to the FA, before his hearing in April, revealed his “net weekly football income has already been voluntarily reduced very substantially”.
There have been regular sessions with Dr Ian Mitchell, the club’s head of psychology, who was appointed last year. Living with an addiction is one thing and living without football another; in his three seasons at Milan, Tonali never missed more than four consecutive fixtures. In terms of the gambling, Howe has said, “I wouldn’t under or downplay a battle that he will have for the rest of his life, and we need to continue to give him the right support.”
Tonali has not been isolated. He speaks English fluently, having taken regular lessons, and can able to communicate freely with staff and team-mates. Juliette Pastore, his partner, was eager to move to England and has spoken publicly about how settled they are in the north east. He has been visible out and about, making friends in Newcastle’s Italian community and attending the annual ball for The Alan Shearer Foundation in February.
In May, Tonali visited Bari in his homeland to speak to high-school students and young footballers. “I was recently in a factory. I was able to reflect on those who work 10 hours a day, just to bring home a salary,” he said, as quoted by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. “I understood many precious things. One above all: if a worker loses his job, his entire family would pay the consequences. Well, this is also why I consider myself lucky. I made a mistake, but I didn’t lose anything.
“Hiding behind the barriers of a problem is never the solution. We need to talk about it instead. Get help. My true wealth is not million-dollar contracts, but being surrounded by people who love me and continue to prove it to me every day.”
The time has occasionally dragged, of course. “He’s no doubt had lows and difficult moments, and he’s leaned on the strong support that he has,“ Howe said.
Although he could not play in either of Newcastle’s friendlies, Tonali travelled to Japan with the squad on their recent pre-season tour. One night, he and other players turned up at a fan event in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, drawing gasps from the room when they stepped on stage. In excellent English, Tonali spoke briefly but from the heart. This season would be a fresh start, a new beginning for him, he said, expressing a steely determination to repay Newcastle’s faith.
While it would be unfair in the circumstances to heap pressure on Tonali’s shoulders, Newcastle could do with an injection of drive and quality, whether or not it starts against Forest in Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup second-round tie.
“Whenever you go through adversity, you find more strength than you realise you had,” Howe said. “It’s been a long wait for him. He’s been an excellent team-mate for the other lads. They will rally around him and help him in these early stages.
“For him and everybody connected with the club, this will be a big moment.”
(Top photo: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)
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