Newcastle may reconsider their interest in Al-Hilal midfielder Sandro Tonali, according to reports.

Newcastle may reconsider their interest in Al-Hilal midfielder Sandro Tonali, according to reports.

Newcastle United are interested in former Wolves midfielder s as a replacement for Sandro Tonali.

In case it slipped your mind, Newcastle’s £55 million summer addition Sandro Tonali is facing a lengthy ban from sport for betting crimes committed in his home Italy while playing for AC Milan.

This puts Eddie Howe in a bind when it comes to team selection. After spending such a large sum of money on a player, you’re going to want to play him – unless you’re Pep Guardiola, who bought Kalvin Phillips from Leeds.

Eddie Howe’s January plans will be reconsidered if Tonali is outlawed.

Even though the January transfer market is still a few months away, Newcastle will have to rethink their entire approach in order to fill the vacuum created by Tonali’s upcoming penalty.

In light of this, Luke Edwards of The Telegraph reports that Newcastle may approach Al-Hilal about loaning Ruben Neves for the remainder of the season.

Newcastle were interested in signing Neves in the summer, but the former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder chose to join another PIF-owned club, Al-Hilal, rather than continue his Premier League career with Newcastle.

So, it appears that Edwards only needed a previous interest and a link in ownership to make that into a tale. He also named Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips, who has been linked with a move to Newcastle for some time, and Manchester United’s Scott McTominay.

The Toon Army’s McTomi-nay has arrived.

McTominay is another player who has been connected with Newcastle since the summer, and despite scoring a stoppage-time brace for Manchester United recently, he is still unpopular with the Toon Army.

In terms of a move for Neves, we can already imagine the uproar if Newcastle attempted to loan him from Al-Hilal. The fact that Newcastle sold Allan Saint-Maximin to Al Ahli in the summer provoked uproar, despite the fact that he was sold for less than market value.

Ironically, the uproar seemed to come from clubs that were perfectly happy to accept Saudi money for their own players, for far more than they were worth. So loaning a Saudi player who just moved there in the summer isn’t going to be worth the trouble.