‘You could argue’: Jamie Carragher has a ridiculous take on the Sandro Tonali situation

Jamie Carragher has weighed in on Newcastle United's unfortunate situation that sees their big summer acquisition banned for 10 months.

Newcastle paid around £55million for Sandro Tonali this summer with many fans feeling that we'd managed to bag another bargain as the Italian international has the quality to be a £100million player.

A couple of months into his time at Newcastle the 23-year-old was caught up in a betting scandal and was found guilty of betting on matches while a player at Brescia and AC Milan.

Newcastle are looking to the loan market for cover for Tonali

So far there has been no indication of whether or not he continued to do so after his move to England, but given that Tonali has admitted to having a gambling addiction, it's very likely he did. This is being investigated by the FA and could see further punishment handed down.

Newcastle are now in the market for a loan player to come in and fill the void left by Tonali for the remainder of the season.

One player linked with the move was Ruben Neves of Al-Hilal which terrified other Premier League bosses so much they had a vote on a rule to block loans between associated parties. That motion didn't pass, so Newcastle are free to loan players from the Saudi League, but whether or not they actually do remains to be seen.

Brace yourself for an insane take by Jamie Carragher

Meanwhile, Jamie Carragher believes Newcastle shouldn't be allowed to bring in another player and should live with their 'mistake' as he told Stick To Football podcast.

"When we talk about Newcastle and think about Sandro Tonali - they’ve bought a player from AC Milan, and you could argue that Newcastle haven’t done their due diligence.

"They don’t know what’s going on in this guy’s private life. They’ve spent a lot of money and are going to lose the player – that should hurt them as a club because they haven’t done things the right way.

"They shouldn’t then be allowed to go and get, for instance, Rúben Neves, who is a £50 million player for free on loan because they’ve made a mistake. If they’ve made a mistake, they should pay for it."

This is an absolutely ridiculous statement to make by Carragher. The idea that Newcastle shouldn't be allowed to loan a player to replace a missing one, for any reason, is just bonkers.

Alessandro Sabattini via Getty Images

And now ... a rant

To call it a 'mistake' is also extremely harsh. Tonali is a gambling addict and addicts aren't exactly forthcoming with their problem until they're exposed, so it's not like they would have found anything until it came to light anyway.

Carragher even says: "They don't know what's going on in the guy's private life", because Jamie, mate, it's private. Just because he's a public figure as a footballer, it doesn't mean that anyone - not even a prospective employer - has the right to intrude on, interfere with or direct his private matters. They can advise, sure, but he's still a person with autonomy at the end of the day.

There's too much policing of people's private lives these days. Likely because thanks to social media the idea of privacy is becoming a thing of the past, but surely Carragher can see that what he said here was wrong.