‘Pure passion’ - Sandro Tonali sends emotional message to Newcastle United supporters

Sandro Tonali announced “this city lives football” to his social media followers as he falls deeper in love with Newcastle United. 

Just one Carabao Cup appearance, a 22-minute cameo against Tottenham Hotspur and two international outings for Italy are all it has taken for Tonali to dismiss suggestions he would never return the same player. The Magpies spent £55million on the midfielder a year ago and could have felt short-changed when he met a 10-month ban for breaching betting regulations after just 12 appearances.

However, the club and supporters rallied behind Tonali in his hour of need - and he is desperate to repay that faith. He said ahead of his return at Nottingham Forest last month: “I’m happy because it’s the first time (playing) after 10 months. I feel good as I know the team and the fans have always been with me. 

“I’ve never been alone and it’s so important because I was in difficulty in the first three months and now I feel it’s a new time after ten months. This is another point in my life, not only for me but also for my family and friends. I have a great team behind me. This is so important. 

“I was lucky enough to find all the people who work here at Newcastle who were always by my side and close to me. This really helped me a lot from the first day in October to today. I had constant support from everyone: the coach, JT (Jason Tindall) and everyone else on the team. 

“But also the chefs, cleaning guys, and secretaries, all of them. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t show me their support, the same as with the fans. 

“They gave me the same love they’d have given me if I had been for ten years and I’d only just arrived a few months previously. This really made me think a lot. It also made me realise what the Newcastle fans are made of.”

Tonali has now posted several pictures of Newcastle on Instagram with the caption “Pure passion - this city loves football”. At the time of writing, the 24-year-old raked in over 60,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

Eddie Howe has a dilemma on his hands tomorrow about whether to give Tonali his first Premier League star for 11 months at Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow. He played the entire 90 minutes in Italy’s recent games against France and Israel.