Pep Guardiola was spotted in conversation with Sandro Tonaliplaceholder image
Pep Guardiola was spotted in conversation with Sandro Tonali | Sky Sports
Sandro Tonali was deep in conversation with Pep Guardiola at the end of Newcastle United’s defeat Manchester City.
Newcastle suffered a 5-1 aggregate defeat after losing the first-leg 2-0 at St James’ Park before losing 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium last night.
Omar Marmoush opened the scoring just seven minutes in before adding a second. Tijjani Reijnders then made it 3-0 with just half an hour gone.
Eddie Howe’s side put up more of a fight in the second half and grabbed a consolation goal through Anthony Elanga’s first goal since joining from Nottingham Forest for £55million in the summer.
Pep Guardiola explains conversation with Sandro Tonali
At the end of the match, Guardiola was spotted in deep conversation with Tonali, which came with extra intrigue after the Italian’s future was placed into doubt earlier this week.
Tonali was reportedly offered to Arsenal on deadline day and while his agent, Giuseppe Riso, denied that was the case, he didn’t rule out a summer exit.
But in his post-match chat, Guardiola claims Tonali spoke of his happiness at Newcastle.
Guardiola said: “What did I say [to Sandro Tonali]? My Italian is perfect, so that's why I can communicate with him. And we have an incredible friend in common from Brescia, Edoardo Piovani.
“And every time we are connected, I know his father some time ago and all the time we met we talked about his experience in Milan, the supporters, and how happy he is in Newcastle.
“He's a really, really top player, top, top, top player!”
Eddie Howe holds sit-down talks with Sandro Tonali
Following the deadline day links to Arsenal, Howe sat down with Tonali to seek assurances over his frame of mind.
“Sandro's absolutely fine,” Howe said. “I had discussions with Sandro yesterday [Monday]. He's absolutely focused on the here, the now, playing for us. His only focus, talking to him yesterday, was Manchester City and trying to win that game. So there's absolutely no issue with Sandro himself. He's very happy and he's committed.
“I find it difficult to talk about things I don't know too much about. I can only talk about Sandro as the person and the player and his mindset here and now, having discussed things with him yesterday. He's absolutely fine.”
Tonali is under contract at St James’ Park until 2029, which includes an option of a further year, after signing an extension as a show of loyalty during his 10-month betting ban.
When asked if if he felt it was a tactic to unsettle Tonali ahead of the summer, Howe replied: “I don't think so, but lots of things happen without my knowledge. As far as I'm aware, we've got a player that's an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person.
“He's very happy here, he's got a great relationship with me, his teammates. He seems really, really happy within himself, so that would surprise me, but I think he's always going to be attracting, or our best players will always be attracting glances from other clubs. That's just the reality of football.
“We want to keep the group together, we want to keep being progressive and, of course, Sandro plays a part in that, trying to hit his best levels and play as well as he can to help the team. So, all encompassed, I don't see an issue, but as I say, I'm not in control of everything.”
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