David Ornstein has stood by his reporting that Sandro Tonali’s agent offered him to Arsenal, despite a public denial by someone purporting to be that agent.
The story of Arsenal’s deadline day revolved largely around a couple of youth signings, but there was one hint early in the morning of a potential major transfer involving Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali.
Newcastle quickly denied the rumours, but David Ornstein later reported that Tonali’s agent had indeed offered him to Arsenal. It just hadn’t reached the stage of club-to-club talks because it was clearly a deal that couldn’t be done on deadline day.
Yet Giuseppe Riso, claiming to be Tonali’s agent, told Sky that they never even discussed the possibility.
Responding to those quotes in a video for The Athletic, Ornstein explained the situation from his perspective, suggesting one issue is that Tonali appears to have more than one person claiming to represent him.
“It became abundantly clear and was completely thoroughly sourced and and checked and corroborated and confirmed by a number of the parties involved or privy to the situation that Sandro Tonali’s agent – there has been some conjecture over how many agents he has and who holds the real power within his stable of representatives – had offered him to Arsenal,” Ornstein said.
“Sandro Tonali as we’ve reported historically is a player that Mikel Arteta and Arsenal like. Therefore they looked into it. Then it was made clear that absolutely no possibility.
“By the way, zero talks club-to-club between Arsenal and Newcastle. Newcastle and Arsenal. No contact. Never suggested there was. But clearly some dialogue with his camp.
“There was then a quote I think from from the representative or [someone] who is regarded as the representative saying that they didn’t speak to Arsenal. But we absolutely stand by our reporting.
“We checked with that very camp and they confirmed it to us and had no issues with the reporting. So I think there may have been some face saving that went on in that and it’s okay. We move on.”
Ultimately, this was never a deal that was going to happen so late on in the January window, particularly given Tonali is a player Newcastle don’t want to lose, and given it’s fair to say the north-east club have a bit of an axe to grind when it comes to Arsenal.
That doesn’t change the fact that someone representing Tonali evidently did offer him to Arsenal, whether it was Giuseppe Riso or someone else.