Sale of Sandro Tonali provokes death threats | OneFootball

Sandro Tonali joined Newcastle United in July 2023.

An astonishing and inspired signing by Eddie Howe.

One that sent shockwaves through Italian football.

Serie A losing one of its very best homegrown stars at such a young age (23) is almost unheard of.

AC Milan fans were inconsolable, disbelief that lifelong fan Sandro Tonali was preferring Newcastle United over their club.

The AC Milan fans furious that their club had accepted the offer from United.

Now AC Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani has revealed to Harvard Business School, just how badly some of the club’s fans took the news of Tonali’s departure:

‘I realise that there is no way to escape what they say on television or write in the newspapers.

‘It really hits you on bad days.

‘Then there are even worse days,.

‘Like when I got death threats when we sold Sandro Tonali.

‘It was in those moments that I thought: “Okay, they don’t teach you these things at Harvard Business School.”

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale has also spoken to Harvard Business School about selling Sandro Tonali:

‘We sold him to Newcastle United because we received an excellent offer and we made a risk/return assessment.

‘We collected €70m (approx £58m) plus an earn-out of €10m (approx £8.3m), the highest figure ever in Serie A.

‘And thanks to that sale we bought six new players and completely renewed the team.

‘We don’t sell out of necessity, we sell out of opportunism.

‘If we remain disciplined, there will always be counterparties on the market who will allow extraordinary returns for the players.’

AC Milan fans still aren’t convinced it was a great piece of business.

The fact that Sandro Tonali is now producing such stunning form for Newcastle United, comes at a time when AC Milan are closer (13 points) to second bottom of the table than they are (14 points) to top of the table Atalanta.