Sandro Tonali sympathy for Isak in Newcastle future admission opens door to glorious Liverpool transfer | OneFootball

The revelation that Sandro Tonali is ‘homesick’ won’t come as a huge surprise for those who watched his post-match interview on Wednesday night, in which the Newcastle star revealed his sympathy for Alexander Isak and spoke out on “options for your life” when asked about his long-term future at St James’ Park.

Tonali has proven to be an excellent signing for Newcastle after brushing off his betting ban, forming a formidable trio with Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes in the Magpies’ engine room under Eddie Howe, and the Italian was recently picked out by Paul Scholes as the Premier League’s very best midfielder, ahead of Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice.

But the 25-year-old has been heavily linked with a return to Serie A pretty much ever since he joined Newcastle from AC Milan, including in the summer when Juventus came calling, only for the Old Lady to baulk at Newcastle’s €100m [£80m] valuation.

Tonali recently insisted he would “not close the door” on a return to Italy. “It’s my country,” he added, claiming Serie A “is getting better and better”.

He further fanned the exit flames on Wednesday, with his “I feel happy here” caveat doing little to dispel the takeaway insinuation that a return to Italy would be an “option for life” he would jump at if the opportunity arose.

And while Tonali didn’t – and may not in future – down tools to force an exit like Isak, his reference to the “tough” times the striker endured while refusing to train for the club that was paying his wages feels significant and won’t play particularly well with the Newcastle fans, who will, and absolutely should, be fearing a similar push to leave from one of their star players.

When asked about whether he sees his long-term future at St James’ Park, Tonali said: “This is a tough question because footballers need to think year by year. I don’t want to say I want to stay here ten years and in two years, three years, four years, five years I will go.

“For me I want to think year by year. The summer was tough for us, for Alex [Isak], but this is football. If you have an option for your life, for another team, you need to think about everything in football.

“I don’t want to say yes, I want to stay here ten years. But now I feel happy here. I don’t feel anything for another team.”

Corriere della Sera (via Sport Witness) reported on the back of those comments that Tonali intends to return to his homeland in the near future, ‘confiding in friends that he wants to return to Milan’.

‘The reality is that next summer will be one of the protagonists of the transfer market’, but the report also quite reasonably asks if ‘only the big Premier Leagues will be able to support the investment figures?’

While we can’t imagine Newcastle would take any exit in particularly good grace given the way they supported Tonali through the betting allegations and ensuing ban, offering him a contract extension until 2029 in that time out of action, a return to Italy on the basis of being ‘homesick’ would be acceptable. A switch to a Premier League rival would not be.

But short of interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid, maybe Paris Saint-Germain, the English top flight sides may be Tonali’s only recourse, with Liverpool very possibly, gloriously, chief among his suitors as they look to source a replacement or competition for Alexis Mac Allister at the heart of their fallible midfield.