Sandro Tonali has been making headlines.
The Italy international found himself at the centre of a media frenzy on transfer window deadline day, claims he was going to leave Newcastle United, possibly to Arsenal.
Both Eddie Howe and Sandro Tonali made clear that this had never been a possibility, that their only focus, manager and player, was on trying to ensure this is a a successful Newcastle United season.
Despite that, you get the media and indeed some Newcastle United fans, claiming no smoke without fire.
That only delaying the supposed inevitable, Sandro Tonali to leave St James’ Park in the near future.
Some media even coming out with embarrassing lies that the relationship between Sandro Tonali and Eddie Howe was broken.
After helping United to a 2-1 away win at Spurs on Tuesday, Sandro Tonali was then even better on Saturday, scoring twice and the main man as Newcastle United overwhelmed Aston Villa and marched into the FA Cup fifth round.
Sandro Tonali now keen to stress what the reality is…“After the second goal I came to Eddie Howe, because in the past few weeks, people spoke about our relationship, but I work every day with the gaffer, the gaffer works every day with me, and our relationship is perfect. It’s not broken and I think this is perfect for the team. We try to do the best for this team, every game, because we play a lot of games, every three days, we play, and we have to be concentrated every time in the training ground to do the best for our team.”
On Saturday, Sandro Tonali was the only one of THAT Newcastle United midfield trio to be involved.
Joelinton hopefully back soon but Bruno Guimaraes set to be missing for a while.
Sandro Tonali on his captain: “Bruno is one of our best players; our best player for scoring, the best player for recovery balls, he’s key for us and we miss him, because it’s tough when you lose a player…Bruno will come back.. He’s a top player for us and we need him. Every player here though, we take the responsibility for everything, not just until Bruno comes back, but also when Bruno comes back we’ll take the same responsibility, because we need every player here in this team – and especially Bruno because he’s one of the best players at Newcastle.”
The performance and result was a massive boost, for many reasons.
Not least because Newcastle United played so well without Bruno Guimaraes, indeed Eddie Howe having eight first team squad players he couldn’t call upon.
Sandro Tonali telling official club media: “We played probably some of the best football in our season. I put this game with Everton and Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League. I think this is one of the three best games for us this season. It’s important for the team, because it’s the second win in a row away, and for me it’s important because it’s the first two goals in my season. I’ve started a little bit late, but every time when you score, your game and your day is different!”
A big bonus at the end when United’s pressure forced a third goal.
Nick Woltemade making it into double figure goals for the season and Sandro Tonali so pleased for the Germany international: “I’m happy especially for Nick (Woltemade). He played as a midfielder and he played very well and he scored the last goal. And I’m happy for for every player, for every member of staff, for all the fans. It was an amazing game; we played very well. This game is so important because we have one dream: to come back to Wembley.”
The Aston Villa match was marred by shambolic match officials, as a series of huge decisions went against Newcastle United.
Just as well United won, or else it would have been an even bigger story of incompetence making the headlines.
Sandro Tonali taking it in his stride: “The first half, we conceded a goal, probably offside, but there isn’t VAR here and for the referee it’s so tough after every game with VAR. We accept the mistake, it’s human…But we played very well, with bravery. Every pass was was positive and really, everything was positive, from the starters to the players who came from the bench.”
Over 6,500 Newcastle United fans in the away end to see this FA Cup victory.
Sandro Tonali appreciating the support: “It’s crazy. The fans were unbelievable. I don’t have words for this, but every away game our fans are the best – really, every game…it was like playing at St. James’ Park. They pushed us all the 90 minutes and for us it’s another player on the pitch. We love to play with these fans, we love to play away games with a lot of fans. I want to say thank you to every single person.”