Bazoumana Toure wants to play for Newcastle United, while Sandro Tonali no longer wanted to be on Tyneside.
That basic premise is helping shape the club’s summer business — which is also being governed by European football governing body UEFA’s financial sustainability regulations (FSR) — and explains why this week’s transfers have unfolded.
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They are losing Tonali to Tottenham Hotspur but Newcastle are adamant they will invest all the proceeds from that deal into building a young, hungry and exciting squad.
Toure is the first signing of this summer who is likely to be a first-XI regular for coach Eddie Howe’s side in the coming season — Ewen Jaouen, the 20-year-old goalkeeper who had already arrived, is viewed as a huge prospect but in the longer run — and the Ivory Coast international winger, also 20, will be joined by other promising talents who are desperate to succeed on Tyneside, the club insist.
Newcastle will pay a fee potentially rising to around €50million (£42.8m; $57.2m), including add-ons, to Germany’s Hoffenheim for Toure. That represents a record sale for the Bundesliga outfit, eclipsing the £40m Newcastle spent to acquire Joelinton from them in 2019.
Several other moves are being negotiated simultaneously and are at varying degrees of advancement.
Switzerland’s 20-year-old World Cup forward Johan Manzambi, of Germany’s Freiburg, is a key target, while Newcastle are working on bringing in another young midfielder to succeed Tonali, at least one full-back, a goalkeeper (with Manchester City’s James Trafford, a 23-year-old who is in England’s squad at the tournament in North America, their primary choice) and potentially another wide attacker, too.
The outgoing transfer of Tonali for a fee rising to £100million ($133.5m) facilitates a team-wide rebuild which would not have been possible otherwise, given the compliance agreement Newcastle have reached with UEFA.
They did not have to sell the Italian to be compliant — the €80million (£68.5m/$91.5m at current rates) sale of Anthony Gordon to Barcelona in May covered the shortfall in the club’s revenue following their failure to qualify to play in Europe next season — but securing such a monstrous price for Tonali has greatly increased their scope to spend, and these exits were part of their blueprint for a summer of significant change.
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Following a June which was dominated by noise surrounding outgoings, incoming business will ramp up as post-takeover ‘Phase II’ at St James’ Park begins to take shape.
A welcome and exciting addition
Toure’s arrival is welcome — not only because a successor to Gordon was required but also due to the negativity which had gripped a portion of the fanbase during June.
Part of the perception problem Newcastle have faced has been sequential. Their plan for summer 2026 as a whole, they stress, is clear, thought-through and has in-built dynamism.
The desire, and need, was for the Gordon sale to be concluded early, while the club were also gazumped by Liverpool (again) after they thought they had agreed a deal with Osasuna for Victor Munoz, who had been their top attacking target. For supporters who are not privy to the whole internal strategy, some feared this window was heading in an unfavourable direction — and a clearer outlining of what should be expected before the September 1 deadline may have reassured fans.
When news broke on The Athletic on Wednesday evening that Newcastle had agreed to sell Tonali to Spurs, the initial response of supporters was mixed.
On the one hand, the price achieved is very impressive for a 26-year-old, who has already served a 10-month suspension from football for gambling offences, whose representatives had made his desire to leave clear and who, according to some on Tyneside, had stressed he wanted to move to London and join Tottenham.
But that was tempered by the fact Tonali was following Gordon out of the club before a first-XI signing had been made in this window — allied with speculation regarding the future of Bruno Guimaraes, the team’s beloved captain — and that his destination of choice was Spurs.
The optics of Tonali moving to a club who have finished one spot above the Premier League’s relegation places in successive seasons and who, theoretically, appeared the most vulnerable of the legacy ‘Big Six’ clubs were not great when added to the other moves Newcastle had made up until that point.
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The consistent message had been that external panic did not mirror the club’s internal calmness and conviction in their approach.
Their viewpoint was that the market remained fairly stagnant but that once the World Cup’s group stage concluded last weekend, business would heat up.
That is precisely what has happened, with Newcastle finalising an agreement with Hoffenheim for Toure on Wednesday, just hours after Ivory Coast’s elimination from the round of 32 by Norway. Toure made three appearances at the World Cup, with one start in their opening 1-0 victory against Ecuador.
Confirmation of a deal being reached came barely an hour after the Tonali transfer leaked, soothing the immediate pessimistic reaction from some supporters to that sale. Toure flew into Tyneside on Thursday and had his medical.
The expectation had always been that Gordon’s replacement would come from abroad. Lille’s Matias Fernandez-Pardo is greatly admired but failing to qualify for Europe made a deal difficult, Antonio Nusa at RB Leipzig is also liked, and Newcastle went for Munoz before they advanced on a move to sign Toure, having already laid the groundwork for a potential acquisition of the Ivorian.
According to a former Bundesliga technical director, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, the fee for Toure is “nothing unusual” and represents a fair transfer from a club in that division to the Premier League.
Although Toure was not necessarily top of Newcastle’s list of offensive targets, he is a player Howe really wanted and there is enthusiasm inside the club about what the electrifying winger can bring.
What can Newcastle fans expect from Toure?
Toure spent a year in Sweden with Hammarby, a club for whom he is said to retain strong affection and who are owed a percentage of the profit from this latest move, when he first came to Europe from Ivorian club ASEC Mimosas in early 2024. Little under a year later, Hoffenheim spent around €14million to take him to Germany.
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Like the Bundesliga outfit themselves, Toure displayed massive progression from his debut half-season, when Hoffenheim were almost relegated, to his only full campaign there, where they flirted with Champions League qualification and ended up fifth, which means Europa League football next season.
Toure developed rapidly as part of a side whose running figures and high-intensity sprints were consistently among the highest in the league. Having impressed in a physically-dominant Hoffenheim side, the hope is that he can weave his delicate but explosive talents into a Newcastle team renowned for their own athleticism.
The Ivorian’s key trait is his raw pace. According to the Bundesliga’s official data, via AWS, his top speed last season was 35.98km/h — the division’s ninth-quickest. He has a waspish element to his game, able to press and disrupt from the front, which Howe demands from his forwards.
Across 29 league starts, Toure scored five goals and provided nine assists — only four players across the German top flight laid on more for team-mates — showing skill, purpose and a creative instinct in attack.
Predominantly a left-footed left-sided forward— since Miguel Almiron left in January 2025, Howe has not had a left-footed wide man to call upon — there is a throwback element to Toure’s game.
Just as Jacob Murphy peppers the box with crosses as a right-footed right winger, he does the same on the opposite flank, using his pace to regularly get outside opposition full-backs. His delivery ranked among the best in Germany last season, with no Bundesliga player creating more than his four chances from low crosses.
As his playstyle wheel below shows, Toure carries significant creative and goal threats, and he is a high-volume dribbler who progresses the ball through carries.
While Newcastle envision developing Toure so he can play on both flanks, he has only occasionally been deployed on the right to date.
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Although he is heavily left-footed, Toure requires refinement when it comes to cutting inside and attacking the box as an inverted right winger. Unlike Gordon and Munoz, he is not necessarily an obvious back-up option through the middle, and that lack of (as-of-yet proven) versatility saw the Spaniard initially prioritised ahead of him.
Physically, there may be an adjustment period required before Toure can really thrive in the Premier League, with insiders acknowledging he is nowhere near a finished product but has massive potential.
There is optimism that further signings will arrive before pre-season training begins a week on Monday, while the message is that Guimaraes is not for sale. The average age of the squad and the overall wage bill have been reduced already, so Howe is looking to construct his new-look side around the Brazilian.
Many of Guimaraes’ new team-mates for the coming season will be young, eager-to-develop talents, very much in the mould of Toure.
