Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta is reportedly working on signing his fellow countryman Sandro Tonali for the Gunners.
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The Newcastle United and Italy midfielder has shone during his time in the Premier League, and it’s easy to see why he’s being linked with bigger clubs.
According to Tuttosport, there is interest from Arsenal, but also from Manchester United, with Tonali surely someone who Newcastle could find hard to keep hold of.
The report suggests, however, that Newcastle could command as much as €100m for Tonali, and that seems like far too much for Arsenal to be paying for someone they arguably don’t need that much.
Still, AFC seem to be pursuing Tonali if Tuttosport are to be believed, with Berta driving the interest, and with the player’s agent recently watching the north London giants’ win over Brighton.
Sandro Tonali to Arsenal transfer doesn’t tick all the boxes
Using CaughtOffside’s own Transfer Fit rating system, we can show that Tonali doesn’t look a good fit for Arsenal’s needs or budget right now…
| Sandro Tonali | TOTAL SCORE: 7/25 |
| Transfer fee | – |
| Performance | ** |
| Achievements | ** |
| Career phase | *** |
| Squad need | – |
The transfer fee of €100m is far too high for someone who wouldn’t necessarily start over Declan Rice or Martin Zubimendi, while he’s also not even a player at the stage of his career where he could improve much further.
The 25-year-old may have won the Carabao Cup with Newcastle, but if Arsenal really want to elevate their current squad they would surely need an elite-level young player for the long term, or an immediate upgrade with more experience of winning the kind of big trophies they’re chasing.
Tonali isn’t either of those, so it will be interesting to see if this proves another miscalculation by Berta, with last summer’s signings like Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze, and Noni Madueke not being particularly convincing either.
Newcastle need to keep Sandro Tonali
From Newcastle’s point of view, they surely need to avoid another disruptive saga like the Alexander Isak to Liverpool story of last summer.
Keeping a key player like Tonali will be important to help Eddie Howe take this team forward, so they’ll hope their high asking price proves enough to ward off suitors.
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