Goodbye Newcastle, Barella's decision to turn down millions to play at Anfield

Mohamed Bin Salman has landed on his feet at Newcastle, where with a few tweaks and a strong but not excessive investment he has achieved the feat of getting into the Champions League knockout rounds. There, due to their situation, they could be drawn, among others, with Real Madrid. And once in the toughest and most important competition, the signings are arriving, specifically two players who are set to make a splash in the summer transfer market.

For 128 million euros, the sheikh and the Magpies are looking to sign the duo that organised one of the Champions League semi-finals in the last edition, Inter Milán midfielder Nicolo Barella and the Milán counterpart of the Azzurri player, Sandro Tonali. Both proposals, which would already be on the table of the two San Siro clubs, would raise the level of the Magpies.

You might think that the English side have had it easy when it comes to selecting big-name signings for next season: they have selected two of the centre midfielders from the weaker of the two semi-finalists from last season. And in a way they have, although Barella and Tonali are not minor players in Milán and certainly not in Serie A, which would be left bare-headed with two of the most important players in Italian football.

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It should be said that both are express requests of the sporting direction and for this two amounts have been set on an absolute expenditure of between 128 and 138 million euros, where 58 M would go to the Inter player and 70 (up to 80) for the Rossoneri footballer. To be one of the four chosen in the Premiership, Newcastle had to leave out much stronger squads, such as Tottenham and above all Liverpool and Chelsea, so that beyond the signings, the Newcastle project works because it has been configured with a clear head. In the United Kingdom, Tonali and Barella can give them much more in a difficult season, where in the UCL they could be Real Madrid's opponents, as one will belong to the third or fourth tier and the other to the second.