“I saw him sad” - Sandro Tonali’s agent opens up on difficult Newcastle move
Sandro Tonali’s agent says Newcastle had not developed into what they had expected, explaining why the midfielder decided to leave for Tottenham this summer.
Speaking on the Colpi da Maestro podcast, Beppe Riso also described Roberto De Zerbi’s role in persuading Tonali to join Spurs.
Riso explains the Newcastle exit
Reflecting on the decision to move on, Riso said, in translation:
“We weren’t able to achieve what Newcastle was meant to become at that time, so we decided to leave.”
He did not specify which ambitions he felt had gone unfulfilled. Earlier in the same answer, he described the original Newcastle move as ultimately the right decision for Tonali, including from a personal perspective.
That move was difficult initially. Riso said Tonali looked sad during his first weeks after leaving his boyhood club Milan, before gradually adjusting and establishing himself in England.
The Premier League challenge had appealed to Tonali at a time when Riso felt Milan had changed and no longer resembled the club he knew.
Back in June 2023, Riso described Newcastle as the “perfect project” for Tonali, saying we wanted him as a key signing.
De Zerbi’s role in the Tottenham move
Riso said De Zerbi visited Tonali at home after Tottenham avoided relegation, telling him he wanted him as a leader. The agent believes their relationship weighed heavily in Tonali’s decision.
That follows De Zerbi’s earlier account of the approach. He initially messaged a mutual friend during the season to ask whether Tonali would consider Spurs, then contacted the midfielder directly after securing survival. Tonali called him back within ten minutes.
The doubts never quite went away
Tonali did actually look sad when he was first being shown around our training ground. Plenty of fans noticed and commented on it at the time, so Riso’s description of those early weeks won’t come as much of a surprise.
The ten-month ban that followed a few months later left the whole transfer feeling a bit fishy in hindsight. Milan denied knowing about his betting at the time of the sale, but I guess we'll never really know for sure.
There was always a nagging feeling that he never really wanted to be here. Newcastle stood by him through the suspension, which makes hearing his agent explain how the project fell short rather hard to swallow.
The De Zerbi part grates too. Messages, phone calls and a visit to the home of a player still under contract to Newcastle, all aimed at convincing him to join another club. Is tapping up just not a thing any more?
Anyway, he's not our problem now. He’s in London, with Milan just a short flight away.
