Sandro Tonali ‘f---ed our season’: How Newcastle will remember 2023-24 (2024)

Newcastle United overcame a bleak mid-winter and even isolated calls for manager Eddie Howe to be replaced with a brilliant end to the season that has reinforced his reputation on Tyneside.

Finishing in seventh place, ahead of Manchester United for the first time in the Premier League era, Newcastle will also qualify for Europe again as long as Manchester City win the FA Cup final.

But it was not smooth sailing – far from it, in fact. Telegraph Sport reveals the inside story of how Newcastle managed to triumph over adversity.‌

The excitement and despair of Sandro Tonali

As one prominent member of the Newcastle United hierarchy put it during a conversation with Telegraph Sport in January, “losing Sanrdo f----- us this season”. The language was industrial, the point was clear. When Tonali was banned for 10 months for breaching gambling rules during his time in Italy (he would later admit to doing the same in England), Newcastle lost their Rolls-Royce.

He was the jewel in another wise pragmatic summer transfer window; a player who would instantly elevate the quality of manager Eddie Howe’s first choice XI. His versatility, the ability to play as a No 6 or a No 8, offered all sorts of tantalising options for the team. He would take the pressure off star midfielder Bruno Guimarães, he would be a new pivot in a fluid midfield system that would allow Newcastle to evolve the way they played. Newcastle would have two technically adept midfield playmakers, who could take the ball under pressure and still get the team up the pitch. As well as a new set-piece weapon. He fitted their needs perfectly.

When Newcastle signed the Italy international for around £60 million back in July, there was much excitement. Tonali was on a shortlist of potential midfield targets last summer, but nobody seriously believed they would be able to get him.

Within weeks, the excitement had turned to despair. News of an investigation into his gambling was launched by the Italian Football Federation and a 10-month worldwide ban followed as the player’s agent admitted his client was an addict.

Newcastle stood by the player. The fans did too. Members of Newcastle’s hierarchy, having spoken privately to Paolo Maldini, the AC Milan legend who had been sacked as sporting director before the Tonali transfer, had to believe the Italian club’s insistence they also had no idea about his problem or the investigation by the authorities.

But in private, Newcastle were devastated. A transfer that had seemed too good to be true in July had become just that by October. It meant Newcastle would have to rely on the same midfield that had so obviously over-achieved in the previous campaign. The size of the blow cannot be underestimated.

A dodgy handball decision and exit from Europe

The 4-1 win over Paris St-Germain in Newcastle’s first Champions League game for 20 years was magical. It will go down as one of the greatest nights in the club’s history. Newcastle dominated the game and thrashed one of the European elite in front of a deliriously besotted home crowd. It appeared to confirm Newcastle belonged at the very highest level of European football.

That, though, was as good as it got. As injuries began to bite, Newcastle lost successive games against Borussia Dortmund (results painted in a very different light by the German club reaching the final this month).

They travelled to Paris in hope rather than expectation. Newcastle, though, took the lead through Alexander Isak and then delivered one of the bravest rearguard actions of the year. With nobody on the bench to relieve the pressure, Newcastle’s players were exhausted but they rode their luck, goalkeeper Nick Pope was superb and they headed into the final minutes of added time all but assured of at least third place in the group and Europa League qualification.

However, under immense pressure from the home crowd, the match officials buckled and produced one of the worst VAR decisions of the campaign. The ball had bounced up inside the area as Tino Livramento ran, brushing his elbow.

Referee Szymon Marciniak initially waved away the appeals and Livramento told Telegraph Sport in March he had “assured team-mates there was no way it was a penalty.” The VAR official intervened, effectively forcing Marciniak to change his on-field decision and Kylian Mbappé equalised from the spot. It was the harshest of calls and the VAR official, in a tacit admission he had made an error, was replaced by Uefa for his next European game.

A fortnight later, at 1-1, chasing the win at home against AC Milan that would still have claimed second place in the group and progress into the knockout rounds of the Champions League, Newcastle conceded a goal to a counter-attack and were out of Europe.

The adventure was over and for those keen to question Howe’s credentials , it was evidence of his vulnerability. Questions about his future started to be asked for the first time.

It was at this moment that Howe received the backing of not just the domestic-based board members, but also Saudi chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Howe was told he would remain as manager whatever happened in the rest of the season. It increased his authority and maintained a sense of unity and togetherness behind the scenes. There was calm in the eye of the storm at boardroom level.

The league’s worst injury crisis and no training

The exit from Europe was swiftly followed by another crushing defeat. With the same 12 players being asked to perform in every game during the busiest month of the year, Newcastle were 90 seconds away from winning 1-0 at Chelsea in the quarter-final of the League Cup when a terrible mistake by Kieran Trippier gifted the hosts an equaliser. Trippier also missed from the spot as Newcastle were knocked out on penalties.

No team in the top flight lost more players, for a longer period of time, than Newcastle and it had huge ramifications. For six weeks, in the middle of the campaign, Telegraph Sport can reveal that Newcastle did little to no training. It was kept secret at the time, but all they could risk doing was the occasional walk through sessions for team shape as Howe looked to protect the players he had available.

It laid bare the drop off in quality in the squad between the core group of 14 or 15 players and those Howe inherited from the pre-takeover era.

The list of absentees has regularly been in double figures and the season unravelled in December when the problems were at their most acute. Heavy defeats by Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool sandwiched an alarming 1-0 loss away to Luton Town.

Newcastle were running on fumes. Yet, to put things into context, when goalkeeper Pope dislocated his shoulder making a routine dive against during an impressive 1-0 win over Manchester United on December 22, Howe’s side were fifth and within touching distance of the top four.

No injury has been felt more acutely than the loss of the England international who only returned to full training at the start of May. With Pope in goal, Newcastle conceded 14 goals in 14 games up to the start of December. They conceded 45 goals in just 23 games in his absence.

In the attacking areas, there was no rotation or respite for those who remained fit. Newcastle’s upturn in form coincided with an easing of the injury problems although Howe has still been deprived of a truly transformative bench until the last week or so.

Spending limits and ‘slippery’ Ashworth’s departure

When chief executive Darren Eales agreed to speak to newspaper reporters at the start of January the message was clear. There was no money to spend in that transfer window unless players were sold first. Newcastle may well be owned by the richest sovereign wealth fund on the planet, in the form of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, but profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) made that largely irrelevant.

Having spent close to £400 million since the takeover in October 2021, with minimal sales to balance the books, Newcastle were paralysed in the transfer market. Instead of players coming in, the rest of the month saw rumours of departures instead with Guimarães, Trippier, Miguel Almirón and Callum Wilson all linked with clubs abroad.

After all the excitable talk of Newcastle being the next Manchester City, they started to look more like Leicester City, with the need to lose one of the star names to comply with PSR.

It is a perception the club has struggled to shake off with the likes of Isak also linked with a number of clubs since January. It raised difficult questions about the club’s stated goal of becoming one of the biggest clubs in Europe, and the reality of being handcuffed by PSR that stunted their growth.

In the short term, although Newcastle resisted the temptation to sell anyone, with Howe digging in, it meant he could not strengthen his squad. At a recruitment meeting in December, talks ended abruptly when a list of targets was discussed, only for it to be made clear the club could not afford any of them.

Newcastle could not buy their way out of their crippling injury crisis. With no reinforcements, Newcastle’s team continued to look fatigued. A difficult month became even harder in February when sporting director Dan Ashworth announced he wanted to leave to join Manchester United. For the first time since the new owners arrived, things were starting to fray around the edges.

There was tension behind the scenes. Ashworth, who was described as “slippery”, had avoided clarifying his intentions for weeks. Meetings became fractious and relationships strained. Ashworth’s departure left a bitter taste and he remains on gardening leave.

Howe’s anger erupts to trigger remarkable turnaround

When Newcastle limped out of the FA Cup, comfortably beaten by Manchester City – bringing an end to a run of an arduous set of cup matches, which included Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan in the Champions League, City, Manchester United and Chelsea, away in the League Cup, and Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and City, all away from home, in the FA Cup – they had also slipped to 10th in the Premier League.

What followed though was a remarkable turnaround. With players starting to return from injury and Howe able to prepare the team properly, a warm-weather training camp in Dubai led to a mental reset, with staff stressing the season was far from over in a passionate team meeting. Having been written off by some pundits and with Howe’s position looking less than secure, at least to outsiders, the team came together again, led by the leadership group of Trippier, Wilson, Matt Ritchie, Jamaal Lascelles and Dan Burn.

Howe found a way to ride out of the storm with his reputation enhanced rather than diminished. His players saw another side of his personality – there was more anger than usual, a warning that change would come. It sparked a revival few predicted.

Everyone was put on notice, but having feared key midfielder Joelinton was going to force a move in the summer, with one year left on his contract, the Brazil international instead signed an extension. It was a key moment, pointing to Newcastle’s newfound ability to keep their best players.

Newcastle had to suffer first. With 13 minutes remaining in their first game after the international break, they were losing 3-1 at home to West Ham. Most Newcastle teams, through the years, would have imploded. This one did not.

With the crowd restless, dismayed by another shaky home performance, Howe sent on Elliot Anderson, Lewis Hall and Harvey Barnes who transformed their afternoon.

Barnes, who had missed the majority of the campaign, his first since arriving from Leicester City for £45 million, with a foot injury, scored twice, including a stunning winner from outside the box. Something stirred within St James’ Park. Confidence and belief surged through fans and players alike. Newcastle won four out of the next seven and secured seventh spot with a thumping victory over Brentford on the final day.

Newcastle scored 85 goals in the league, a new club record. The Entertainers are back and winning a trophy is next on the agenda.