It’s been quite a few months that we’ve been hearing about the pie in the sky when it comes to Juventus’ summer transfer targets in the summer of 2026. It’s not a big-name striker. It’s not a big-name central defender to pair next to Gleison Bremer. It’s not a new starting goalkeeper, which has become a bigger priority than many of us may have thought thanks to what has happened over the last few weeks.
It was a midfielder. More specifically, it was Newcastle midfielder and Thursday night’s hero for
Italy, Sandro Tonali.
It was never going to be anything close to a bargain if Juventus were going to actually make their reported desires to bring Tonali back to Italy after his move to the Premier League in 2023. That has been the feeling for the better part of the last year. But now? Yeah, the odds a something happening aren’t exactly improving.
According to Fabrizio Romano on his YouTube channel on Friday, Juventus’ chances — or really anybody else in Italy for that matter — of bringing Tonali to Serie A this summer are looking rather slim as we approach the time when clubs begin their work for the summer mercato. With some big-money Premier League clubs lurking, it is likely to be a situation where Juventus’ desire to sign Tonali will be priced out because of who else will be in the mix. Romano says that the two options in England to go for the former AC Milan midfielder are Manchester United and Arsenal, with the former very much being looked at as a top priority with their anticipated return to Champions League football next season.
Romano says he remains convinced Tonali will return home to Italy “one day” but it doesn’t sound like it will be this summer with the likes of United and Arsenal quite interested in signing him a few months from now.
What Tonali’s final price might end up being is probably anybody’s guess, but he’s likely to be one of the bigger names moving from Premier League club to fellow Premier League club this coming summer. With that comes a big price tag that Newcastle can use to offset the fact that they won’t be in the Champions League next season (and appease the Profit and Sustainability Rules that are currently in place in England.
Arsenal reportedly made a run at Tonali during the winter transfer window, while Manchester United’s interest is seemingly growing by the day from what Romano has said about how things stand right now.
That pretty much equates to Juventus being priced out of the market. No matter how many reports we’ve heard over the past eight, nine or 10 months, it’s always been viewed as a difficult move mostly because of the financial aspect. You’d be taking one of Italy’s best players out of the league where he’s earning a ton of money and on top of that it would probably cost at least as much as the €70 million that Newcastle paid for him three years ago.
Or, we can just refer to it as IlBianconero.com did when writing about Romano’s update: Juventus-Tonali is an (almost) impossible dream. Sounds about right based on the way the wind is currently blowing.
