Did Jason Tindall mean this? - Mad Dog gives very telling answer when asked about Sandro Tonali's ability

Sandro Tonali has been nothing short of a revelation this season for Newcastle United and the fanbase is starting to place him on the first place podium in terms of the club's best players.

Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak are hugely important players for Newcastle, but in terms of ability Sandro Tonali is probably the top of the pile right now.

I've been purring about Sandro for a while and there's nothing new I can say about how good he is, but he just seems to find new ways to highlight what I, and many other fans have been saying for a while.

That gut-busting run from deep inside his own half into Man United's danger zone on 88 minutes on Sunday was insane and has been rightly identified by fans as one of the more outstanding moments of a game in which we won 4-1.

Getty Images

Jason Tindall has been surprised with how good Sandro Tonali is

Even journalists were impressed by the athleticism of the Italy international with Jason Tindall being asked in his pre-match presser this morning whether they knew just how athletic he was before he signed. See if you can spot the line in Tindall's reply that may have raised a few eyebrows.

"A lot goes into signing players. We certainly did, from a football perspective, a lot of research on Sandro.

"We loved him as a football player; technically, tactically, his age and athleticism. Obviously, we had all the stats to back that up. But it's only probably when you work with him so closely like we have then you realise what an exceptional talent he is, and I think he's certainly showing everybody the quality player that he is and he's delivering fantastic performances right now.

"He's a great lad as well with a fantastic attitude and, you know, he's a top, top player."

Jason Tindall seemingly played a blinder to protect the club

Those four words in the first line there: 'from a football perspective'. We can't help but wonder if that was just Tindall answering the question, or if he was thinking that he'd better add that to avoid any follow-up about how they didn't know about his gambling addiction which resulted in a 10-month ban.

A lot of people questioned the club's due diligence for not picking up on the issue.

It's still a huge debate as to whether that's something a club would be looking at when scouting a player, and just how far into a player's personal life they should be looking before making a decision on whether or not to move for a player.

Tonali was hardly going to advertise what he was doing so it would have taken some digging way beyond what is acceptable to know what he was up to. Players still have to have some level of privacy, they're not applying to join Mi5 at the end of the day.

Still, well played, Jason Tindall, for managing to avoid an awkward follow-up.