De Zerbi admits contacting Tonali before Newcastle approved Spurs move - and invites tapping-up questions

Tottenham's record signing has taken on a new layer of controversy after Roberto De Zerbi revealed he had been in touch with Sandro Tonali before Newcastle had given Spurs permission to speak to the midfielder. Tonali completed his €108 million move to north London earlier this month, becoming the most expensive signing in Tottenham's history. De Zerbi's role in convincing his fellow Brescia native was well known, but the manager's own account of how early the contact began has raised the possibility of a tapping-up complaint from the Magpies. De Zerbi told reporters that he first tried to reach Tonali in May, while the season was still being decided and well before Newcastle accepted an offer in July. He contacted a mutual friend, described as the team manager of Brescia, to pass on a message. "I sent a message to my friend to say, 'Hey, inform Sandro, if we stay up, I'll go to him'," De Zerbi said. "After 10 minutes, my friend answered me, 'I said to Sandro, and he's open'." De Zerbi added that he watched Newcastle's game against West Ham and was impressed by Tonali's first-half display. Having avoided relegation, he made his move: the day after the final game against Everton, at 4pm, he sent Tonali a message asking to speak. Ten minutes later they were on the phone, and two days after that De Zerbi traveled to Italy and met the player at his home in Brescia. Tonali, for his part, made clear he did not want to leave Newcastle on bad terms. He said he instructed his agent and sporting director Ross Wilson to secure the best possible deal for the Magpies. "The first thing was to get the best deal for Newcastle," Tonali said. "I met there some of the best people for football, for their work in the training ground." He also explained how the Brescia connection shaped his relationship with De Zerbi, saying they met two or three times in the city during the off-season. "Brescia is so small," Tonali said. "I spoke with him when he was in Sassuolo, and at Brighton and Marseille; we spoke every time, because we are Italian, we are from Brescia, and it's a mini-connection together." Newcastle could still choose to take issue with Tottenham's conduct, but there has been no sign they plan to do so.