Newcastle United have now made an offer of £43m for Sandro ...

Newcastle United have now made a bid for Sandro Tonali.

The news emerged late on Tuesday night, with it having already been made clear that midfield is the key area where Eddie Howe wants to strengthen this summer.

Multiple sources reporting the Sandro Tonali bid and amongst them are The Athletic, who say a bid of around €50m (approx £42.8m) has been made to AC Milan.

The 23 year old has played various midfield roles for AC Milan and easy to see why Eddie Howe would be interested in the talented and versatile player. Though the understanding is that if this bid is successful, Sandro Tonali would play in a deeper midfield role that would allow Bruno Guimaraes to play further up the pitch.

Originally with Brescia, Tonali arrived at AC Milan in summer 2020, originally on loan, the move becoming permanent a year later for an initial £6m.

He has made rapid progress since then and in 2021/22 helped AC Milan to their first Serie A title in 11 years making 36 league appearances.

Last (2022/23) season it was fourth place in Serie A for Sandro Tonali and AC Milan, however, he also started all 12 of their Champions League matches as they reached the semi-finals, defeating Napoli in the quarters before losing out to city rivals Inter in the semis.

In 61 Serie starts (and nine sub appearances) these last two seasons, Sandro Tonali has had 16 direct goal involvements, scoring seven and getting nine assists.

With Serie winning experience, 18 Champions League appearances these past two seasons, 14 caps for Italy, Sandro Tonali is clearly a serious competitor and looks like he would be a real asset for Newcastle United.

At 23 he very much fits in with the clear recruitment strategy, that has seen the overwhelming majority of the cash these past 18 months spent on (ages at the time of signing) a 21 year old (Gordon), two 22 year olds (Botman and Isak and a 24 year old (Bruno).

Sandro Tonali will captain Italy at this month’s Under-21 Euros and they start with a group game against France on Thursday night, earlier that day Anthony Gordon and England take on the Czech Republic in their opening group match.

We all wait now to see what happens with this bid for Sandro Tonali but at the very least, reassuring to see the level that Eddie Howe and Newcastle United are looking at when it comes to reinforcements this summer.