Love at first sight for Tonali on Tyneside
MINE'S A TONALI: A supporters flag referencing the Italian beer Moretti, pays tribute to Sandro Tonali of Newcastle United Pic: Stu Forster/Getty Images
HOMESICKNESS is an affliction encountered by footballers down the generations, and Sandro Tonali is no different. It's not a crime and many can sympathise with such a predicament, especially with a first move abroad.
Given his seismic recent shift in lifestyle, the Italian still yearns for the daily routine he left behind when Newcastle offered him £80,000 reasons a week to cast-off his Milanese comfort blanket for pastures new.
There has been much upheaval for the midfielder to deal with in the last six weeks, and the 23-year-old can be forgiven for feeling like as he continues to acclimatise to his new life in rural Northumberland.
There's the language barrier, and when he's negotiated that there's the accent barrier, the climate, missing friends and family, and the lust whenever time allows for those fleeting returns to the familiarity of his Lombardy dolce vita.
In contrast, the football itself seems to be the easy part. So much change off the pitch, and yet on it, he couldn't have looked more at home with the kind of display to suggest this was his 200th Newcastle appearance, not his Premier League bow.
Scoring six minutes into his debut clearly helped the settling-in process - it should have been two in 10 but for a fine save from Emi Martinez - as did having a hand in Alexander Isak restoring the hosts' lead after another debutant, Moussa Diaby, had equalised for Aston Villa.
Tonali probed and prodded, calculated and cajoled in a sumptuous debut, playing a central role in ensuring Newcastle purred along at a perfect pace throughout to contemptuously swat away one of the clubs eyeing their coveted place among English football's top four.
It's easy to see how Newcastle manager Eddie Howe 'fell in love' with the Italian international's play while pouring over scouting reports and clips of his number-one summer target over the past few months.
Next up it's Manchester City, and what will be a rare billing this season: that of underdog.
"My first real game for Newcastle was wonderful," Tonali reflected. "It was impossible not to enjoy it because the game went so well, just as we had prepared it to go.
Alan Shearer reckons Newcastle need a miracle to clinch back-to-back top four finishes. Not for the first time, Alan Shearer is talking nonsense. No need to look nervously over their shoulder at the chasing pack. The two Manchester clubs and Arsenal, the only ones to finish above them last season, are clearly in their sights.
Isak stretched their advantage early in the second-half before substitutes Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes rewarded Howe's side for refusing to sit back on a two-goal advantage against wilting opponents.
A dream debut for Tonali, surely? "Yes, but it's one thing to dream and another to experience it." As well as a fine footballer, he's clearly a bit of a philosopher as well. "I'm happy with how it went, now I will go home, relax and rest, then I might realise what happened."
Given their far from hectic training schedules, the biggest danger to many footballers is time alone with their thoughts, in Tonali's case that's often thoughts of home.
He added: "It's a very different reality to Milan, and everything has to change, even yourself to a degree. You don't do the same things you did before, you don't meet up with the same friends that you had.
"It's a very different lifestyle, but I will always be professional. I felt the warmth of the fans, they cheered me on from the start. Speaking to the coach after the match, I realised how happy he was and how much he likes me."
That coach could have been Unai Emery given a different outcome when the Spaniard spurned Newcastle almost two years ago in a sliding doors moment that earned Howe the biggest break of his career.
As it is, Emery faces the stiff task of lifting his shell-shocked troops. That's in addition to looking for new recruits before the window closes, with England defender Tyrone Mings set to join influential midfielder Emi Buendia in facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering suspected knee ligament damage in an awkward fall before half-time.
"We know we have to avoid the mistakes we made," the Villa boss conceded. "Newcastle were more consistent than us over the 90 minutes and they deserved to win, but not by that margin."
(4-3-3): Pope 7; Trippier 7, Botman 7, Schar 7, Burn 7; Tonali 8 (Anderson 90, 5), Guimaraes 7 (Longstaff 85, 5), Joelinton 7; Almiron 7 (Murphy 86, 5), Isak 9 (Wilson 68, 7), Gordon 7 (Barnes 68, 7).
(4-2-3-1): Martinez 8; Cash 5 (Philogene 87, 5), Konsa 4, Mings 5 (Torres 31, 5), Digne 4; Kamara 4, Douglas Luiz 4; Bailey 4 (Tielemans 46, 4), Diaby 7 (Coutinho 87, 5), McGinn 5 (Carlos 64, 5); Watkins 6. Booked: Douglas Luiz, Digne, Martinez Referee: Andy Madley
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