From bringing in Antonio Barreca on loan in a previous era to targeting the highly-rated Sandro Tonali today, clearly, Newcastle United are now fishing in a very different pond in Italy. Four-and-a-half years on from signing their last Italian, Newcastle have sensed an opportunity in the offing and returned to Serie A in a bid to find value for money.
That should not come as a shock when homegrown midfielders, such as Declan Rice and Mason Mount, are out of reach not only in terms of transfer fees but, also, wages. In fact, Eddie Howe admitted last month that 'the big clubs will dwarf us' because Newcastle are not 'huge payers of wages in the Premier League'.
Yet Newcastle can still compete with Europe's elite on the continent and Tonali is a case in point. It says a lot about Tonali's character - more on that later - that the Italy international was willing to take a pay cut to make his loan move to AC Milan permanent in 2021 after a difficult first season at the San Siro. Although Tonali has since signed a new long-term contract with his boyhood club, and there are still four years to run on that deal, Newcastle would still be able to offer the midfielder a marked increase.
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Throw in the club's long-term project, which appealed to the similarly-aged Bruno Guimaraes, Sven Botman and Alexander Isak before Newcastle even qualified for the Champions League, and the attraction is obvious. However, as much as that will give Newcastle hope, securing Tonali's services would be every bit as impressive as pulling off a move for Inter Milan star Nicolo Barella. Tonali, after all, is a lifelong fan of the Rossoneri and the 23-year-old has a strong relationship with manager Stefano Pioli, who will not want to lose a key player and leader in the Young Azzurri captain.
It is easy to see why Pioli wants to keep Tonali, who not only helped Milan win the Scudetto in 2022 but, also, played his part in the Rossoneri reaching the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 16 years last season. Tonali is a player with a high ceiling who is only going to get better and his numbers tell you as much; the Italy international was directly involved in 11 goals for AC Milan last season, seven goals the campaign before that and none whatsoever in his first year at the club.
Tonali struggled with the step up in that first COVID-disrupted season on loan from Brescia, but showed his true qualities when he joined the club permanently. Aided by a full pre-season, Tonali popped up with a number of huge contributions in Milan's title-winning campaign, including a stoppage-time winner at Lazio and a double against Verona on his 22nd birthday, which sent his side top above bitter rivals Inter with just two games to go.
Tonali has long been compared to Andrea Pirlo, a midfielder who also made his name at Brescia before moving to AC Milan, but the Italian is a different player. In fact, it was Gennaro Gattuso who Tonali spoke to before taking the number eight shirt at Milan. To this day, Tonali still has a mug with Gattuso's face on it from his childhood and he certainly possesses the sort of mentality his idol would be proud of.
"Everyone demands a lot so there's never a game where your standards and focus can drop," Tonali said earlier this year. "We know that we're at AC Milan and we need to give everything. An unusually high standard is required."
That commitment and obsession with the game is evident in the ink on Tonali's body. Tonali has tattoos of all the shirt numbers he has worn and the aforementioned number eight has been etched on one of his fingers. Elsewhere, many of Tonali's tattoos are a tribute to those closest to him, including the words 'family first' in Italian.
Newcastle's recruitment team have already done their homework on Tonali, but his motivations are clear. Convincing Tonali to leave that family and his boyhood club behind may well prove one of their biggest challenges.
