Arsenal Tonali Pursuit Put to Bed as Newcastle Demand £100m on Deadline Day

The rumour mill worked overtime on deadline day, but Ben Jacobs has extinguished one of the more eyebrow-raising transfer whispers doing the rounds: Arsenal's supposed swoop for Newcastle's Sandro Tonali.

The speculation gathered pace after Arsenal confirmed Mikel Merino would miss an extended spell on the sidelines. The Gunners' statement confirmed he would be sidelined for a considerable period, with hopes of returning to full training before season's end. That injury blow prompted David Ornstein to suggest a loan signing might materialise, though he cautioned against reading too much into it.

Things got spicier when Florian Plettenberg reported that Arsenal were actually exploring a deadline day move for the Italian midfielder. Newcastle had already knocked back initial overtures, he claimed. Shortly after, Nicolo Schira ramped up the drama, insisting Arsenal were "really working" on a deal and had dangled a contract through 2031 with an attractive salary package to tempt Tonali. The snag? Newcastle were holding firm at £100m and had no intention of letting their man depart.

Tonali, who arrived at St James' Park from AC Milan in 2023 for approximately £55m, has established himself as one of the Premier League's standout midfielders since his move.

Yet Jacobs has now poured cold water on the entire saga. The former CBS Sports journalist states Arsenal haven't even picked up the phone to Newcastle, and that the northeast club's stance remains unchanged: Tonali is not available.

Back in late December, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had spoken about the club's approach to the winter window. "The window is there and we have to be looking at it – what do we need?" he said. "We have to be actively looking and then whether we can do it or not, that's a different story. Our job is always to be very prepared because something can happen, so hopefully it'll be very positive. When you look across other clubs, they have 24 or 25 squad players. Although we've had more injuries than expected, we want to be better and we know how important player availability is this season."

It appears, however, that availability won't extend to Tonali on this occasion.