'Very emotional': Sandro Tonali has spoken to Italian press around his return to football and the 'emptiness' he felt for 10 months

In the summer of 2023 Newcastle United pulled off a masterstroke in the transfer market by picking up Italy's most exciting young midfielder, Sandro Tonali from AC Milan for around £50 million.

However, just 12 games into the season, the Magpies found themselves unable to select the former Italy u21 captain after the Italian Football Federation concluded a case which alleged Tonali had been breaking the game's gambling laws.

Tonali pleaded guilty and was hit with a 10-month ban from the sport. He was allowed to train with Newcastle but could not take part in any match, including friendlies unless it was played behind closed doors.

Suddenly, the conspiracy theorists were out and they declared that AC Milan knew about Tonali's gambling habits which is why Newcastle were able to complete the transfer for such a relatively low figure - nothing has ever been proved around this, and Newcastle United themselves have never made such an accusation.

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Sandro Tonali has spoken of his return to football being a 'liberation'

Over a year on from that ruling, Tonali is back in action for Newcastle United and the Italian national team, and while Eddie Howe is still discovering the best way to utilise him, he is thriving at international level.

Tonali has now spoken to Vivo Azzurro TV (via Calciomercato), and spoken about the 'emptiness' he felt training knowing there was no match at the end of it, and the emotions behind making his return to the pitch.

“My return to the field against France was a bit of a liberation. The first encounters with Newcastle were very emotional, but this one I experienced totally on a football level. It was the third match and I no longer had the emotion of the first. It was very beautiful, everything came naturally.”

“Last year’s journey was very hard, but very productive. I will always carry with me the memory of the year I spent off the field because it’s right not to forget it. I believe that when a player trains all week without his final objective, which is the match, he finds a sense of emptiness inside himself. It wasn’t easy to spend the first year away from home without playing an official match, but trying to maintain only physical fitness. This was the challenge I had to face in the most serious way possible.”

Sandro Tonali is still finding his feet at Newcastle due to 10 months out of action

There's a strong suggestion that we, as Newcastle fans, are yet to see the best of Tonali, although we have certainly seen glimpses of his brilliance.

Tonali seems to play a lot better in the role usually occupied by Bruno Guimaraes, which is a huge problem for Eddie Howe.

That being said, it's a problem with a simple solution ... play with a double pivot. But Howe seems to be obsessed with 4-3-3 so we'll likely never see it happen.

We just hope that Howe can find somewhere for Tonali to fit in regularly and make the type of impact we all know he's capable of.