Newcastle United saw the best and worst of Italian star Tonali during his time at the club
15:03, 23 Sep 2026Updated 16:49, 23 Sep 2026
Tottenham midfielder Sandro Tonali(Image: Getty Images)
Sandro Tonali has come under fire among sections of the Tottenham Hotspur fanbase after failing to shine following his big-money move from Newcastle United.
Spurs have suffered a woeful start to the Premier League season. Having spent more than £300million in the summer, plus adding two significant loan signings hopes were high in north London that they would improve after consecutive 17th-placed Premier League finishes.
Instead, Roberto De Zerbi’s men have yet to win a game this season and sit rock bottom of the table with the league on pause for the international break.
Tonali’s performances have been mixed, to say the least. He started off poorly, including against Newcastle in the second game of the season where he was mercilessly taunted after the Magpies inflicted a 2-0 defeat on their former player. And while he has improved of late, there remain doubts as to whether the whopping £100million spent to bring him to Spurs was worth it.
Tonali’s abilities lie more as a defensive midfielder, rather than a creator. But when you are spending that amount of money, there is an expectation of goals and assists. The Italian has neither this season – an XG of 0.24 and XA of 0.61. With Spurs failing to score until the dying minutes of their fifth league game of the season, it has been a bitter pill to swallow for supporters.
Former Spurs and Newcastle legend Chris Waddle says Tonali and the other Tottenham midfielders are ‘too similar’ and the team needs to find a Paul Gascoigne-type player instead of deep-lying defensive midfielders.
“Spurs is a big club to play for,” he said. “There’s always pressure, there’s always scrutiny. They are one of the Big Six. We’ve seen a lot of players who are really good players, by the way.
“But the one thing lacking is a No 9 and a No 10 in a way, even though [Omar] Marmoush is going in there. James Maddison, I don’t know if he can last 90 minutes, he doesn’t seem to play a lot of minutes.
“They’re missing that player for me, a good No 10. The wingers are good but in midfield they’ve got Tonali, Bentancur, Bergvall, Archie Gray, I think they’re all very similar. You need different types of players. You definitely need a talent like Dele Alli and going back to Gazza, Glenn Hoddle.
“They’ve always had a No 10, a talisman who can make goals and score goals, they haven’t got that at the minute. They’ve got a lot of good players, but the midfielders are very similar.”
There has been a suggestion over a lack of effort, not just from Tonali but also the rest of the side. It was a criticism aimed at Tonali in his final season at Newcastle, when he lacked any spark or drive especially when the club looked towards him to lead by example. Waddle, however, says the players haven’t ‘downed tools’ and are still playing for De Zerbi.
“It’s hard when new players haven’t hit the ground running, a lot of players haven’t,” he told Betpack. “Getting the balance right is key, because they’ve signed loads of players, but you’ve got to get the balance right.
“The players are listening, the players understand how big Tottenham are and what’s required. It’s not a lack of effort, it’s probably a lack of confidence rather than effort, because they’re working hard.
“You can’t say they’ve downed tools, they actually are working very hard. But it’s putting that ball in the net, and eventually you can see the frustration in them because they think, ‘Yeah, we might have a lot of possession, we create some good chances, but we don’t take them.’”
De Zerbi, for his part, has been keen to defend the club’s record signing, someone he fought so hard to land in the summer. It was the Italian who persuaded the club to splash out so much on his fellow Brescia native, and who convinced Tonali himself to sign.
Instead, he’s claimed Tonali is suffering from a lack of fitness and a difficulty adapting to new surroundings. It’s no secret that the player wants to return to Italy, having joined Newcastle from AC Milan, and that there is an element of homesickness around him. It meant constant speculation about his future while he was on Tyneside and looks unlikely to go away anytime soon.
“He’s a good guy, he’s working very hard and I’m happy to have Sandro,” said De Zerbi. “We are lucky to have Sandro with us.
“The adaptation has not been so fast but it can happen, also in Milan in the first season, ok he was younger, but it is not so easy to change city, to change everything for the players. Sometimes the adaptation is immediate, sometimes you need more time.”