Exclusive: Sandro Tonali at centre of Arsenal & Man City transfer battle but wildcard options could emerge | OneFootball

So much has been written about the Sandro Tonali transfer saga since January that it can be hard to keep up, but I’ve done my best to gather the latest information on his future.

As has been widely reported, Tonali sees his future away from Newcastle United this summer, with his agent already fielding interest from the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City.

Having consulted sources with ties to the agents industry, I’m reliably told that initial exploratory talks have been held between Arsenal, Man City, and those close to the player.

Manchester United and Chelsea also have Tonali on their lists for this summer, while I’m also told that Jose Mourinho’s imminent arrival at Real Madrid could see them join the race for the Italy international’s signature.

Sandro Tonali transfer not advancing…yet

However, for now the main message is that nothing is advancing with Tonali. This could change, of course, as there’s plenty of interest there, but one issue is that the player’s genuine preference is for a return to Serie A.

“Tonali is on the list of pretty much every top club,” one source explained. “He really wants to go back to Italy, though, so we’ll have to see if any club feel the deal is affordable.”

Despite links with Juventus, I’m not aware of anything concrete happening there at the moment, with Tonali’s high wages a significant issue for Serie A clubs.

It could be that the 26-year-old will decide he’s willing to take a pay cut to head back to his home country, but for now it’s very hard to make predictions like this, with a move to another Premier League club or a European giant like Real Madrid looking the safer bet.

Newcastle don’t want to sell Tonali

Obviously the other thing to consider here is that Newcastle sources insist they don’t want to sell Tonali and there are no plans to do so.

But of course we know that football doesn’t always work like that, and that even though the Magpies played hardball over Alexander Isak last summer, he did eventually end up leaving in a mega-money move to Liverpool.

Tonali will not be short of offers to make the step up to playing in the Champions League, so we’ll have to see if anyone can come in with the kind of money to test Newcastle’s resolve.