Roberto De Zerbi needed just ten minutes to convince Sandro Tonali to sign for Tottenham.
The 26-year-old swapped Newcastle for north London earlier this summer in a £100million deal – becoming Spurs’ club-record signing in the process.
Spurs beat off competition from Arsenal and Manchester City in order to land the Italy international.
And Tonali has since revealed that he was left blown away by the project pitched by De Zerbi.
Enter Sandman
“My first impression was really positive,” Tonali told reporters in Sydney during Spurs’ pre-season tour of New Zealand and Australia.
“When you are happy after a ten-minute speech, it’s everything, everything is perfect.
“The gaffer was Italian, Roberto. I knew him. Roberto really cares about his work, his football.
“He said, ‘The project will be tough but will be perfect for me, for you, for the city, and we can do one of the best seasons, because we have big players. We just have to put a lot of work in.’”
On talks with the club, the midfielder said: “When we spoke with Tottenham, we decided to sign for this team.
“They spoke with 100 per cent passion, 100 per cent seriousness.
“For this city, for my life outside of football for my family, OK, it’s like 10 per cent. Roberto and the director made the difference to the deal.
3
“I spoke after two minutes with my wife and my family and I said, ‘Probably it will be one of my best decisions of my career.’
“She told me, ‘You have 100 per cent the control over this decision’. I wanted to speak with her because it’s our life.”
‘We decided to return to Italy’
Tonali also revealed that his preference was actually to return to Italy this summer.
The ex-AC Milan star left his homeland in 2023 and had been linked with a return to his country of birth.
However, no Serie A side were able to afford Newcastle’s lofty asking price.
“We had decided to come back in Italy, but it was impossible for the money,” Tonali continued.
3
“England was our solution and we found the best solution in England for me, for my career, for my football, for my happiness, for my family.
“I spoke with two teams, I understood after ten, 15 minutes that Tottenham would be my next team.”