Tonali, two goals and a ‘crisis’ kick: between the market and poor use

August 12, 2023. December 18, 2024. One year and four months later that dazzling debut in English football seasoned with an immediate goal (against Aston Villa), Sandro Tonali returns as a protagonist in England. He does so after an 18-month ban that expired last September. He does it after 4 months of complicated return. He does it in the League Cup, the third most important competition of the English season. It doesn’t matter, though. Because the goal – or rather, the goals – taste like rebirth. And they arrive at a truly particular moment.

Before yesterday, in fact, Tonali had played a trifle between August and early December. In the 14 Premier League matches played, the Italian had only been chosen as a starter in half of the cases. A total of 740 minutes with just one assistagainst Nottingham Forest. In there, many clips: 21 minutes with Forest, 25′ with Arsenal, 30′ with Brentford.

However, for Tonali, the turning point seems to have arrived. An entire match played in the 4-0 victory over Leicester in the Premier League which was followed by the entire Cup match against Bretford in which he scored a double. For the first time in the season Tonali played two consecutive matches from start to finish. A symptom that perhaps something is moving again.

Were the market rumors also ‘helpful’? In our latitudes some rumors have actually emerged. From a sensational return to Milan to the interest of Juventus, who will almost certainly see Fagioli playing in January and who would extremely need a profile like Tonali’s. Sandro’s agent, however, as well as coach Eddie Howe, denied: “Sandro is an important player for Newcastle, we have waited a long time for him“. It’s difficult to blame him. The environment and fans have never abandoned him and in the end, the operation, for anyone interested, would not be low cost.

Born in 2000, Tonali’s passes have always been an upward leap. From Brescia, who sold him to Milan in the 2020 summer transfer market for around 20 million; to the same Rossoneri who sold him to the Magpies in 2023 for a sum three times higher: 60 million. The 18-month ban for football betting from October 2023 to August 2024 has certainly undermined returns, but the value ultimately is still thereas demonstrated by the calls from the national team where Luciano Spalletti has never been ‘conditioned’ by the poor use of coach Howe in these first 4 months of the new season.

We’ll see if this brace actually changes Newcastle’s hierarchy a bit. With Joelinton and Guimaraes untouchable in the midfield, Howe has so far often rotated Tonali with Longstaff and Willockin a method which, as seen, did not give the Italian much continuity of performance. However, things now seem to have taken the right path for the Lodi area. And the market rumors, perhaps, for once, could have been the positive turning point.