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Tonali agent drops Arsenal bomb: Gunners transfer is 'the goal'
Tom Weber
- Updated: 14 Mar 2026 18:16 GMT
- 4 min read
News
The agent of Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali has admitted that joining a club like Arsenal is the Italian's "goal."
The 25-year-old has become one of the Premier League's most well-rounded midfielders since the end of his gambling ban. Tonali has consistently starred for Newcastle over the past 18 months, and this has naturally made him an attractive commodity.
With Champions League qualification looking increasingly unlikely for the Magpies - unless they win the competition this season - speculation surrounding the future of Tonali is ramping up.
Current ETV
Sandro Tonali
DM, M (C)
Newcastle
Sandro Tonali
DM, M (C)
Newcastle
ETV Range
€53.1M - €64.8M
Already at the end of January, the player was thrust into the spotlight when it was revealed that Arsenal had explored a late move for him after Mikel Merino went down injured.
Nothing came of it, and Tonali's agent Beppe Riso later claimed that there was no contact with the Gunners. Despite this, he made no secret of the fact that the Italy international could be on the move this summer.
Major Tonali transfer inevitable
Riso has now doubled down on this assertion and admitted that Tonali joined Newcastle precisely so that he could become an option for elite clubs like Arsenal or Man City.
"Exactly," the agent responded when quizzed about the interest from the Gunners by Calcio e Finanza, "that was the goal from the moment he went to England: to try to make him a star player. I think he's one of the most valuable Italian footballers in the world."
Riso has essentially disclosed that Tonali views Newcastle as a stepping-stone club. Indeed, he says that the midfielder only traded AC Milan for the Magpies because of the club's financial might and the level of the Premier League.
"The deal came about because a club like Newcastle, with unlimited financial resources, had decided to invest in Sandro. We considered the idea of having the player play in a higher-level league."
Later in the interview, Riso also confessed that he has been trying his best to engineer a transfer for Inter midfielder David Frattesi - seemingly against the wishes of the player. "I was the one who wanted to take Frattesi away from Inter. This season, the possibility of reaching the World Cup is at stake, and I didn't always see him happy.
"Davide is passionate; he's someone who wears his heart on his sleeve. You can see it even when he celebrates. He's like that by nature. I'd like to see him always happy, so I was the one who put this worry in his head. But both him and Inter, and Inter and him, are hard to separate."
Newcastle don't want to sell Tonali, but Riso's comments make it clear that, if push comes to shove, he and his client are prepared to leave the St. James' Park club no choice but to agree to a transfer.
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