Sandro Tonali is close to joining Tottenham, but the move has not been wrapped up in the clean way many expected. Spurs are still waiting to announce the deal, even though one insider has said, "Everything is ready to go. Just have to be patient." The reported structure is £92.5m up front plus £7.5m in achievable add-ons, so this is already a major piece of business before the paperwork noise is even settled.
The delayed announcement
Tonali was filmed at a Milan airport on Thursday as he flew to London for a medical, which tells you how advanced this has become. Yet the announcement is still pending, with Newcastle reportedly waiting to announce Bazoumana Toure before Tottenham complete Tonali’s announcement.
That delay has created room for speculation, but the basic picture remains the same. The deal is moving, Spurs are not panicking, and the public staging of the transfer is lagging behind the actual work being done behind the scenes.
The motive debate around Tonali
Tonali has also made it clear that football was not the only factor. He said Roberto De Zerbi played a huge role in the decision, and also pointed to family life changing with his child's birth, which influenced the choice to make a change.
That sits alongside the louder money argument from outside. John Barnes said, "When people wonder why this move could happen, it's nothing to do with football," while Simon Jordan added, "I suspect it is because of the money." Both readings are part of the story, but Tonali’s own comments make it hard to reduce this to a single motive.
The performance side is mixed as well. Tonali averaged 6.94 across his last five Newcastle Premier League matches, played 420 minutes in that run, and finished that spell with a still-useful workload rather than disappearing from view. That recent form helps explain why Newcastle can sell from a position of relative strength, even if the move still feels unusual.
Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League, which makes the fee look even bolder. Newcastle ended 12th, so the move is not a simple case of a bigger club poaching a struggling one. It is Tottenham spending heavily to land a player they clearly want, while the wider debate around why he is leaving keeps running in parallel.
The transfer should not drag on forever, and the next concrete step is Tottenham’s announcement once the final administrative pieces are in place.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →