The Italian media appear to be trying to drum up some doubt around Sandro Tonali and his future at Newcastle United.
That’s not anything especially new. At the best of times, it’s hard for the Italian media to fathom any footballer from the country truly wants to play elsewhere and whenever they go it’s always expected they’ll quickly be pining for a return.
With Tonali that’s been further encouraged by the feeling his AC Milan exit was more about the Rossoneri needing money than it was about the midfielder pushing for a move to Newcastle United.
Carlo Laudisa is a senior journalist at Gazzetta dello Sport and has been with the famous Italian newspaper since 1987. He has a column on Wednesday titled: ‘Tonali-Newcastle, something is broken. And Sandro would like to return to Italy’
Laudisa believes Tonali is ‘increasingly marginal’ when it comes to Eddie Howe’s key players at Newcastle United.
Returning to his beloved AC Milan is presented as an option, as are Juventus and Inter Milan, but the big issue is wages and whether the Magpies would agree to a loan, which is seen as the only way of securing an exit.
There would need to be a lot of goodwill from Newcastle United to facilitate such an exit and it doesn’t appear to be in their interests.