Club shuts door on summer move for midfielder tracked by Barcelona, Milan and Juventus

Despite his issues with gambling on the game, leading to a lengthy suspension, there has never been any doubt about Sandro Tonali’s talent. The former Brescia and Milan man has been back in action for less than a year, and already there are clubs wondering if he could be extracted from Newcastle United.

Recent reports have placed Barcelona amongst those clubs, alongside Italian giants Juventus, and AC Milan, who appear keen on a return for the 24-year-old. They are reportedly monitoring his progress, and Caught Offside even go as far as saying that the Italian sides believe he could be available for around €60m. However Newcastle have no intention of letting him go, and will attempt to block any attempts to sign him this summer.

Tonali has three years remaining on his deal at St. James’ Park and in all probability wages above market value, so doing so does appear difficult. Unless any of these clubs can convince Tonali to leave first, then perhaps they could leverage Newcastle’s financial fair play issues into a negotiation.

From Barcelona’s perspective, it would not be entirely surprising if they were tracking Tonali as a potential option down the line, but any move seems a long way off, despite an interest in him before he moved to Milan as a teenager. Already the Blaugrana are tight against their salary limit in La Liga, and there is no certainty that they will not be in excess of it again, which would place spending restrictions on any business they pursue.

In addition, they already have a strong stable of midfielders and plenty of competition for places, with the likes of Gavi and Fermin Lopez struggling for minutes. While it is true that Tonali offers different attributes to any of the midfielders they currently possess, it would be a major surprise if they made that a priority in the summer transfer window.