Manchester City have entered the race to sign Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali, complicating Tottenham’s pursuit of a player Newcastle are valuing at around £100m.
According to The Chronicle, sources close to Tonali’s management team describe City as genuine candidates to lure the Italian from Tyneside. The report follows Newcastle’s rejection of Tottenham’s £80m bid earlier this month, with the Magpies making clear they want closer to £100m for a player under contract until 2029 and carrying no release clause.
A Crowded Race and a Stubborn Seller
City arrive here having already spent £114m on Elliot Anderson this summer – which either signals a club with serious intent or one that has lost all grip on reality, possibly both. Football365 noted a potential €110m figure being floated for Tonali, which translates to roughly £95m and would represent a record fee for an Italian player. No other major outlet has confirmed City’s readiness to submit a formal bid, and Football365 itself advised treating the story with caution.
What is not in dispute is Newcastle’s position. Sky Sports has reported the club will only sell on their own terms, and chief executive David Hopkinson has said as much publicly. Ben Jacobs has suggested a deal structure involving around £85m guaranteed with add-ons reaching the £100m mark could be the mechanism that gets something done – but that still requires someone to blink first.
Where This Leaves Tottenham
Spurs have been in dialogue with Newcastle over Tonali for some time, and the rejection of £80m was always going to invite exactly this kind of complication. A club that finished 17th is now competing with a side that wins cups and plays Champions League football – and Tonali’s camp reportedly knows it. Whether City formalize their interest or this is Newcastle leveraging a convenient rumour to pressure Spurs into a higher offer is genuinely unclear. Both are plausible. This window has already seen Tottenham targets attract rival Premier League attention, and there is no obvious reason Tonali will be different.
Spurs will need to move closer to Newcastle’s valuation, and quickly, or accept that a player they have tracked for months will end up elsewhere. At £100m, there is also a reasonable argument that the money could be better spent – but that calculus becomes irrelevant if City are genuinely in the room.
