Dan Ashworth drops Newcastle United transfer hint after Sandro Tonali ban

Just months after joining Newcastle for an Italian record £52million from AC Milan, Tonali was handed a lengthy ban from playing after breaching Italian betting regulations. The ban has prematurely ended his first season on Tyneside and raised plenty of questions surrounding the transfer and where the club goes from here.

How Newcastle United found out about the allegations against Sandro Tonali?

It has since transpired that the extent of Tonali’s betting offences surround his time in Italy with AC Milan and Brescia.

But Ashworth insists there was no way Newcastle could have known about it beforehand.

“It was a massive shock, a massive surprise,” Ashworth admitted. “Dealing with it was new to all of us. It came from nowhere.

“We first became aware of it when there was a potential allegation on social media. I spoke with his representatives and it just happened really quickly.

“The Italian federation went into Coverciano to speak to Sandro. Within the next 48 hours everything went quickly and there was a potential he could get charged.

“He is a top player and a big signing, we will miss him. To contextualise it, it could have been an ACL. These things happen in football, although not in this context.

“For me, from the minute it happened, you look at yourself. What could we have done better? What could I have done better? What lessons can be learned from this? Could we have known? Should we have known? You look at your processes.

“I’ve been doing this for 16 years and nothing like this has happened before. We pride ourselves on due diligence and getting the right characters.

“It’s really tricky about what you can and can’t know about people in this world of GDPR and what you can and can’t check. First of all, I look at myself.

“We haven’t come up with anything yet. Speaking to other sporting and technical directors it’s almost like, ‘how could you have known?’ That would not stop us trying to get as much due diligence on people going forward to try to mitigate the risk.”

What is Newcastle United’s next step?

Tonali has already returned to training with the Newcastle first-team and has been cleared to take part in intra-squad friendlies while the club seek further clarification on the player’s potential involvement in external friendly matches.

While it could not be confirmed whether Newcastle are pursuing legal action against AC Milan, Ashworth clarified that no contact has been made with the Serie A side since the news of Tonali’s ban and explained that the club are currently exploring all aspects of the deal.

“It’s really difficult for me to get into what other clubs do or don’t know,” Ashworth added. “All we can do is look at our own internal investigation and internal process. It’s a really difficult question for me to answer, I just don’t know.”

And The Magpies’ sporting director admitted he would have reconsidered signing Tonali had he known about the impending ban.

“I think if you know a player’s going to be out for 10 months whether that’s through a medical injury or through something like this, you’d either have to look at the deal again or structure the deal in a different manner,” Ashworth added. “But as a player, from the performances of the player and the character and personality, no reservations.”

When discussing whether Tonali’s wage could be cut due to a breach of contract, Ashworth added: “Any player’s contract situation is private and confidential.

“You could look at it like [a breach of contract]. Within the contract there is always an amount of flexibility within that.

“It depends how they react when they break a rule etcetera. As a club, we go back to how well Sandro has reacted and acted since it came to the fore.”

How Newcastle United’s transfer business could be impacted

Tonali’s lengthy ban could force a January transfer re-think for Newcastle United given the 23-year-old was a top target in a key area for the club in the summer.

“We’ve got a number of things we can do,” Ashworth continued. “It might not be a like for like replacement for Sandro. It could be a player who can play in a different position or multiple positions.

“It could be that young Lewis Miley gets more minutes and comes to the fore between now and January. We might look in a different area of the pitch.

“But obviously it is a blow losing Sandro. He was going to be one of our most influential players so we have to do everything in our power to make sure the squad is as competitive as possible going into the second half of the season.”

Newcastle have been linked with a loan move for Al Hilal midfielder Ruben Neves in January given the Saudi Pro League side are also owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

But Ashworth hinted that Newcastle could potentially be stopped from doing any deals with PIF-linked clubs in the future.

“The current rules and regulations say there is nothing to stop [Newcastle doing deals with Saudi Pro League clubs],” Ashworth added. “Currently. But there is a potential that the various different organisations will look at things across related parties and what you can do to acquire players at a fair market value, which have already in place for a quite a while.”

Could Sandro Tonali be handed a further ban by the Football Association?

Tonali has been found guilty of breaching Italian betting regulations for betting on AC Milan matches during his time in Italy with the ban issued by the Italian Football Federation. It is not known whether the player placed any further bets after signing for Newcastle that would find him in breach of the FA’s rules surrounding betting.

And Ashworth was unable to clarify whether Tonali could face a further ban from the English football authorities amid an FA investigation.

“All I can say to you is that we have fully cooperated with all of the associations and organisations concerned and the FA are, of course, fully aware of what’s going on.

“They are the ones who had to sanction the ban so we’re fully cooperating with everybody.”

On a potential further ban for Tonali, Ashworth concluded: “All I can deal with is the present and the facts. I can’t look into the future and, as I’ve said, we’ve cooperated fully with all of the organisations.”