Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has joined an exclusive club that is going to have to start widening its membership. The Marseille midfielder has rejected Newcastle United, joining a long list.
Are the Magpies prepared for the season ahead? With Matthias Jaissle now settled into the hotseat after Eddie Howe‘s decision to step down, there is an anxious sort of excitement in the air, optimism that this could be an exciting new chapter, even against the backdrop of so many setbacks in the transfer market.
Right now, Newcastle are still reeling from the £75m sale of club captain Bruno Guimaraes to Premier League champions Arsenal. However, it almost feels as if the impact of Sandro Tonali‘s departure earlier in the summer has been overlooked.
Why Sandro Tonali is such a big miss for Newcastle
When Newcastle sold Tonali to Tottenham in a nine-digit deal, there was a sense that it wasn’t the be-all and end-all for the Toon persuasion, with Howe banking a pretty penny and convinced that Guimaraes would remain.
But the transfer window has been cruel to Newcastle for some time now, and when the skipper confirmed his desire to leave, Arsenal ramped up the gas and pushed to close a deal which has now left St. James’ Park shorn of seniority in the centre of the field.
Hojbjerg would have been perfect, an industrious and experienced controller. The likes of Sean Steur and Aladji Bamba, signed for a combined £53m fee, are now among the Premier League’s most talented young midfielders, but they are 18 and 20 respectively, stepping onto a live minefield of a landscape on Tyneside.
Tonali is not really a midfielder defined by the metrics. Across 79 games in England’s top flight, he has scored five goals and provided four assists. He ranked among the bottom 8% of the division’s midfielders for tackles won and the bottom 17% for duels won per 90, and the bottom 32% for pass completion. Still, Tonali’s physical, technical and authoritative qualities makes him a rare and influential player, the kind who can dominate matches alongside the right partner (at Newcastle, that was Guimaraes).
His intensity and energy enabled his teammate to create and influence. Now, Newcastle find themselves short of such a profile. Steur is a silky playmaker, and Bamba a ball-winning natural, but Tonali boasts a rare skillset, and Jaissle will want to secure such a profile before the end of the window.
How Newcastle could replace Tonali this month
For all the disruption and negativity at Newcastle, Jaissle is confident that he is building a competitive outfit for the year ahead. Certainly a team with the capacity to better last year’s 12th-place Premier League finish.
But another midfielder is needed now that Guimaraes has left for the Emirates. It won’t be Marseille’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg but it could be another midfielder on the continent.
Well, as per TEAMtalk, Newcastle have engaged in talks with Inter Milan as they pursue a deal to sign Aleksander Stankovic, with the 21-year-old midfielder having returned from a successful loan spell in Austria with RB Salzburg. The Serbian talent has previously been pursued by Manchester United and Tottenham, with Brentford also seeing a £34m offer rejected.
Stankovic hails from Italy, returning from his loan spell in Austria at the end of last season. In that, he could emulate Tonali in making a big-money move to Newcastle and growing into one of the Premier League’s foremost midfielders.
The son of legendary Inter Milan midfielder Dejan, Stankovic has indeed been hailed as the “the son of a legend” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, and with talks underway, there’s a sense that Newcastle could secure a future superstar here. Whether he manages to raise his game to his father’s lofty standard is another question, but Newcastle would certainly be laughing if so.
Though Stankovic would feed into a young and inexperienced Newcastle team, opposed to someone like Hojbjerg in that regard, there’s no question that he has the physical and athletic skill to make his mark. Indeed, he proved his worth across ten hard-fought Champions League fixtures, notably winning 60% of his duels and recovering 5.3 loose balls on average each game. This was a real test for one so young and inexperienced, but he passed with flying colours, showing that he can dictate against top European outfits.
Like Tonali, Stankovic isn’t really defined by the data. Oftentimes, Stankovic makes his mark by picking out the right teammate with a crisp, pinpoint pass. He lunges in at the perfect moment, disarming his opponent before progressing play forward. He is athletic and intense in a way that offers shades of Tonali.
|
League Form (2025/26) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stats (* per 90) |
Tonali |
Stankovic |
|
Matches (starts) |
35 (31) |
39 (34) |
|
Goals + Assists |
0 + 2 |
6 + 2 |
|
Touches* |
58.0 |
57.6 |
|
Accurate passes* |
37.7 (84%) |
38.5 (86%) |
|
Big chances created |
6 |
6 |
|
Key passes* |
0.9 |
0.8 |
|
Possession lost* |
11.3 |
8.4 |
|
Succ. dribbles* |
0.5 |
0.2 |
|
Ball recoveries* |
4.2 |
4.2 |
|
Tackles + interceptions* |
3.0 |
4.6 |
|
Duels won* |
3.1 |
3.4 |
The two midfielders are uncannily similar. Stankovic is more robust and active in defensive phases while being slightly crisper on the ball. How his skills would translate to Premier League football remains to be seen, but the odds are in his favour, boasting a playing style that could see him dovetail into the space that Tonali vacated at Newcastle earlier this summer.
