What can Newcastle expect from Sandro Tonali?

Right, let's find out more about Newcastle's new signing, Sandro Tonali, then, and speak to Italian football expert, Mina Zucchi. Mina, thank you so much for joining us here on Sky Sports News this afternoon. Really exciting deal, it seems, this one. Certainly Newcastle fans, very excited. Can you just confirm that this is great business for them? That's quite a lot of pressure, yeah. He's 23 years old and honestly, I would be very excited if Sandro Tonali was joining my team. I think that he is very much a great player to have in your midfield, simply because he can play in so many different roles. He's got a great mentality, always works the hardest, sixth best runner in Serie A, covers so much ground, is all about the hard work. But he is still 23, and while that is a reasonable age in football, in Italy, it's very, very young. But I think under Pioli, that he's had now for three years, he's really grown into it and matured quite well. And he is somebody that I think has a high ceiling for how well he can develop. You mentioned there that he can play across the midfield. Do you see him fitting into Newcastle in one particular way? Where do you see his biggest strength? Yes, it's an interesting one, because I think what he is is a tactical genius. He can really do so many different roles. If you just give him the instructions, he's very good at following those and playing to what the team needs. He's very good at observing what the opponent is going to do and adjusting to that style to be the player that the team needs. Now, across Milan's games, purely with the coach, if he needed to play with somebody that would attack from the front or defend from the front, Tonali would be able to heed those instructions and change the way that Milan looked according to what his position was at the time. He has played further forward and managed to score braces. He's also been a player that you put further back to win the tackles. He has always said himself that he's been compared to Andrea Pirlo, but really that has more to do with the fact that he has long flowing hair when he was at Brescia, the same team as Andrea Pirlo. But he's modelled his game around Gennaro Gattuso. So he's all about winning back possession, all about recycling that possession. He's got a good passing range, somebody that you play in your midfield to really just cover ground, win back possession, recycle and get the team to be launched forward again. I think that for me is his best role and I think the role that suits right now most teams. It's one that you just don't find at the moment. And so you do need to pay a premium. And for somebody that has the ability to play so many different roles, I think that he's one for the future. So technically, that's what he can bring to the pitch. I just wonder, does he have a similar mentality to his hero in Gattuso? Well, it's funny because he says, you know, that he speaks to Gattuso all the time and that he thinks of him as like his father. But he is one of those old school players. He is not interested in social media. He's not interested in being one of those guys that's just famous. He's more interested in just getting the job done. And that is why he was so beloved by Milan fans. It's hard to really determine this because he was great, obviously, to get to Milan because that was the club of his heart. He was such a Milan fan growing up. That was where he wanted to end up. And so when he got there and there was a possibility of he might not be retained because he didn't do too well in the first year. A lot was said that he was just too emotional to really give his best at the time. But actually, he was like, no, I really want to stay here. I don't mind if you cut my salary. And he did. He gave up part of his salary just to stay at Milan and try to prove himself. And he has grown leaps and bounds. Like I said, he is somebody who will cover ground. When there's a big match, you'll see him go completely off social media. More interested in all just training incessantly, barely seeing everyone. And it's just about that old school mentality that I think he has and that he has managed to keep up. That is why him and particularly Nicolo Barella, who was at the time the first target that Newcastle wanted. These are the two guys that you won't want from Italy just because of their professionalism and their dedication to the cause, as well as their obviously technical ability and tactical intelligence. You mentioned his love affair with AC Milan, and we know they obviously took a pay cut to stay at the club a couple of years ago. So two things really, Mina. At this point, are you surprised that he's left? And secondly, what's the reaction been like in Milan amongst AC fans? I mean, to say it was a huge shock is honestly quite an understatement. You've got three players in midfield, one for Juventus, one for Milan and one for Inter. Barella, Inter, Tonali at Milan, Locatelli at Juventus. These guys are so dedicated to their teams, have grown up as fans of these teams, have done everything throughout their career to reach those teams. So Tonali has spoken incessantly about how much he is in love with AC Milan. He has talked about supporting them as a kid, wearing the colours, everything that his family and his mother did to make sure that he would get there. And he has said repeatedly, you know, now that I'm here, I've taken a pay cut, I will stay here because I know how hard I've had to work in order to get here. So it was really quite shocking to see that he would accept this. But I think this is what we need to understand about Milan as a club right now. This was once upon a time one of the most glorious clubs in Europe, obviously have won the second amount of Champions Leagues after Real Madrid. They've got a great history of great players, the likes of Paolo Maldini. But when the club were happy to let Paolo Maldini go and not actually fight to keep him in any way, shape or form, it seems like this is a club that's willing to let go of legends. They're more interested in making this a sustainable club that just buys well, nurtures young talents and then sells at a big price. So if you can say it's a more glorified Atalanta and not one that's seeking to reclaim past glories or rebuild the sleeping giant, it doesn't seem to be interested in that at the moment. If you're losing your heart in Paolo Maldini, who they let go a month ago, and now you're losing your future captain in Sandro Tonali, it tells you a little bit more about the business plan that it seems Milan have set themselves on. It's no longer a team of trying to build for the future, to try to be the great Milan of yesteryear, but rather be a side that can raise a lot of money and grow on that level. Entertainment, make it a great team in that sense, but one that's more low cost and high reward, unfortunately, for the fans. So as you can imagine, the fans feel there's no more romanticism left. It's not a romantic team at the moment and one that if you're willing to let go of Paolo Maldini and Tonali in one month, then what is the future of this club? That's really interesting insight, Mina. I wonder if you can give us your view on Inter Milan as well, because we've seen particularly links with Romano Lukaku. Obviously, he enjoyed his time there on loan last season. We know that Chelsea are unlikely to offload him this summer. Do you see that happening back to Inter? And just in general, what it's like in Inter Milan at the moment? Is there a similar view as the one that you've just described with AC Milan? It is a different story. Unfortunately for them, they're just really cash-strapped. So they have taken too many loans and they need to pay a short-term loan quite quickly by next year. So for them, they do need to offload talent. But they are a side that have currently a management team, especially in CEO Giuseppe Marotta, who is trying to reach the very top. So they are about winning the trophies. They are about reigning supreme in Serie A. That is very much the goal. They're not necessarily interested in taking young talent and breeding that. They do want to win as quickly as possible and try to create the dynamic that Juventus had at the top. It's going to be difficult for them because, like I said, they are cash-strapped. But obviously, every year that they reach as far as they can in the Champions League translates into nearly 100 million for Inter, which is somewhat suffice for them. And that's one thing that I can say is that they can probably only sell one talent this year and not much more. Sadly, the situation right now in Serie A means that a lot of these big clubs, whether it be Napoli, whether it even be Juventus, they just don't have the money rolling in, certainly not when it comes to comparisons with the Premier League. So there's always going to be that moment where great talent will have to be sold when you are willing to pay 80 million for them. Of course, we've seen targets like Nicolo Barella targeted by some of the best right now, but they're willing to hold on to that and they will try to fight to keep that talent as much as possible, whereas Milan are a little bit more enticed by the dollar, if you can say that. So right now for Inter, it's about possibly Onana leaving, but Brozovic is leaving as well and trying to keep as much as possible. And they will once again target the Champions League. They will once again target winning the Scudetto, hopefully, and getting as many trophies as possible. So I think in terms of their project, they're a little bit further ahead than what Milan's wanting to do. OK, Mina, we wait to see the impact that Tenali will have in the Premier League. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.