The grapevine is humming with word that Roberto De Zerbi has worked his magic once more. According to GoalZaza, the Italian tactician has personally c...
The grapevine is humming with word that Roberto De Zerbi has worked his magic once more. According to GoalZaza, the Italian tactician has personally convinced Sandro Tonali to swap the black and white of Newcastle for the lilywhite of Tottenham. Personal terms are, we understand, all but signed. The ball now rests squarely in Newcastle's half of the pitch.Let's be honest about what this represents. This isn't just another bid being shuffled across a desk. This is a statement of intent from a Spurs side that has, for too long, lacked a real midfield metronome. De Zerbi knows that to implement his high risk, high reward system in North London, he needs a footballer who can receive the ball under pressure and still pick the lock. Tonali, for all his struggles with a toe injury and adaptation to English football last season, remains exactly that sort of player. His ability to read the game from deep, to clip passes into the channels, and to snap into tackles when the opposition tries to break is precisely the profile Spurs have been crying out for since Mousa Dembele's joints gave up the ghost.Now comes the really interesting part: the fee. GoalZaza understands that the figure being thrashed out could exceed £80 million. That is a staggering sum for a player who, by his own admission, has not yet fully hit his stride in the Premier League. But that is the market. That is the price of ambition. Newcastle, despite their Saudi backed coffers, are not in a position to simply turn down that kind of money for a player who is not indispensable to Eddie Howe's plans, especially with the Profit and Sustainability rules still lurking like a bogeyman in the background. The pressure is on the Magpies to accept. They might try to hold out for a straight cash deal or a structured payment plan, but make no mistake, this is a transfer that now has real legs.For the Spurs faithful, this is the sort of signing that turns a decent window into a great one. Pair Tonali with a fit James Maddison and a rejuvenated Brennan Johnson, and you start to see the shape of something promising. The question, as always, is whether the deal gets over the line. But having secured the player's word, De Zerbi has already won the hardest battle. Now it is down to Daniel Levy and the Newcastle board to do the dance. Squeaky bum time, as they say, but with a very real prize at the end of it.
