Tottenham Targets Sandro Tonali for Ambitious Transfer

Tottenham have spent years talking about ambition. This summer, they are trying to put a price on it.

Three deals are already done. Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson have walked through the door on free transfers from Bournemouth and Liverpool, Jan-Paul van Hecke has arrived from Brighton, and the squad is slowly being reshaped for Roberto De Zerbi’s first full season in charge. After back‑to‑back 17th-place finishes, the polite language has gone. Spurs are acting like a club that knows it has run out of excuses.

Now comes the statement move they have never previously dared to make.

Spurs line up “really big money” for Tonali

According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Tottenham are preparing a huge push to land Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali, a player widely viewed as the kind of cornerstone signing that changes a dressing room’s temperature overnight.

“There is an acceptance at St. James’s Park that Tonali could exit this summer, but the money has to be right. We think that is around £100m, with a very significant salary demand as well. Tottenham are in for him,” Ornstein said.

The plan is clear. First, convince the player. Then, confront Newcastle.

“What I see happening here is Tottenham trying to get to a place where they know they can do a deal with the player on salary. I'm hearing they are offering him really big money to join them. After that, they will go to Newcastle. If that part is okay, they will open talks and try to negotiate a fee.”

For a club that has historically kept a tight grip on its wage structure, the numbers being discussed mark a dramatic shift. Ornstein added that a deal around the £100m mark would take Tottenham into territory they have never visited in terms of both fee and salary.

It would be a record outlay, a break with years of caution. And it would be for a player whose stature, as Ornstein underlined, would instantly alter how Spurs are perceived at the top end of the market.

Record on the line

GIVEMESPORT sources indicate Tottenham are ready to go as high as £80m to £85m for Tonali, with the prospect of add-ons on top to bridge the gap towards Newcastle’s £100m stance.

That figure alone would shatter Spurs’ existing transfer record. It is a move that says as much about the ownership’s backing of De Zerbi as it does about Tonali’s reputation. The Italian midfielder has been described as “world-class”, and Tottenham are behaving like a club willing to pay that premium.

The structure is likely to be crucial. A base fee in the mid‑£80m range, performance‑related add-ons, and a salary package big enough to drag Tottenham into a pay bracket they have traditionally avoided. This is not tinkering at the edges; this is an attempted reset.

Newcastle, for their part, are braced. Ornstein’s information is that there is “acceptance” on Tyneside that Tonali could leave, but only if the numbers land in the region they want. Around £100m. No discount, no soft compromise.

A club trying to wake up

All of this unfolds against a bleak recent backdrop. Two seasons, two 17th‑place finishes in the Premier League. For a club of Tottenham’s resources, that is not a wobble, it is a crisis.

Yet even in that slump, Spurs remain a heavyweight in the market. Their ability to chase a deal of this scale underlines it. The early business – Senesi and Robertson arriving for nothing, Van Hecke for a fee – has been smart, opportunistic. Tonali would be something else entirely: the kind of signing that defines an era and tests every promise made about ambition.

De Zerbi showed enough at the end of the 25/26 campaign to convince the hierarchy that his ideas are worth backing aggressively. The Italian wants control, bravery on the ball, and a midfield that can dominate games rather than survive them. Tonali fits that blueprint.

Tottenham are not just shopping for talent. They are trying to buy their way out of a rut, to prove to themselves and everyone else that the last two years were an aberration, not a new reality.

Whether Newcastle blink, and whether Spurs truly go to a level “you did not use to see them go before”, will tell us how serious this new era really is.