Why Newcastle struck gold on the new Sandro Tonali

It proved to be something of an exodus from St James’ Park this summer, with Eddie Howe followed out the door by a string of high-profile Newcastle United stars.

Anthony Gordon, sold for a fee of around £69m, has swiftly become a popular figure at Barcelona, while Bruno Guimaraes pleased both Arsenal and Magpies supporters alike following his recent, belting effort at the Stadium of Light.

For Sandro Tonali, however, it’s been a far more difficult start to life at Tottenham Hotspur, the Italian struggling to live up to expectation following his £100m move to north London.

He’s in danger of being this season’s Alexander Isak, having engineered a move away from Tyneside, although from a Newcastle perspective, they can delight in what was a fine piece of business.

Why Newcastle played a blinder with Tonali sale

Amid the raft of exits and missed opportunities in the transfer market, it’s been easy to take a negative view of Newcastle’s business in recent times.

That said, the Magpies sure know how to spin a sale, raking in sizeable fees for the likes of Isak, Gordon, Guimaraes and Tonali, all of whom they made a profit on.

In Tonali’s case, managing to secure an eye-watering £100m price tag really is remarkable considering there were far more troughs than peaks during his time at the club, with the 26-year-old not exactly starting brightly in a Spurs shirt.

The Lilywhites are yet to win a Premier League game this season, with the ex-AC Milan man enduring an unhappy reunion with the Magpies last month, following Newcastle’s 2-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

You could say Tonali has merely carried on from where he left off last season, enduring a real dip as the Tynesiders fell to a mid-table finish, amid a difficult final year for Howe.

Having missed almost the entirety of 2023/24 due to his gambling ban, the St James’ Park side only really saw the best of the midfielder in 2024/25, with Paul Scholes selecting him as the best in the division in his position at the time.

Whether he recaptures that form or not isn’t really of any concern now, with PIF more interested in the sizeable profit they made even after splashing out £55m in the first place.

Let’s hope this isn’t the end of the club’s smart recruitment in that sense.

Why Newcastle have struck gold on Tonali repeat

2025 was a dismal summer initially for the northeast side, although they are now starting to reap the rewards of their investment, even while letting the likes of Nick Woltemade move on swiftly.

Yoane Wissa, even while missing a penalty last time out, has been a man reborn under Matthias Jaissle, while Anthony Elanga has started the new campaign in a rich vein of form.

The Magpies are yet to really see the best of Jacob Ramsey, although Malick Thiaw has grown in status and stature over the past 12 months or so, now a real leader in this youthful dressing room.

Still only 25 himself, the towering German has been Jaissle’s on-field skipper so far this season, with club captain Dan Burn watching on from the sidelines.

That is a testament to the centre-back, considering his relative youth and short time at the club, having faced up to the media in the wake of the recent thumping defeat to Leeds United.

Like Tonali, the seven-cap Germany international had been a marquee, big-money arrival from Milan, signing for an initial fee of around £30m, plus add-ons.

He’s certainly not been perfect since then, making six errors leading to a goal or shot in the Premier League last term, yet like Tonali, it looks to be his second season where Thiaw really comes alive.

At the weekend, for instance, he racked up 11 clearances, recorded a 90% pass accuracy rate and lost the ball only eight times from his 99 touches, looking like the far more settled of the two alongside Sven Botman.

A defender with an eye for goal, having scored four league goals last season, the one-time Schalke man is a real all-rounder, someone who can seemingly develop even further under Jaissle’s watch.

The Magpies won’t be looking to sell any time soon, but it is worth noting that Thiaw’s value has already soared over the past 12 months or so, with CIES Football Observatory calculating his maximum value to be around €86m (£77m), a significant increase on his initial cost.

For context too, that is roughly the same figure that Tonali is valued at, with there the potential for Thiaw to be the club’s next marquee sale later down the line. Let’s hope he sticks around a little while longer before that, however.