Sandro Tonali has reflected on the time that he spent with AC Milan, admitting that in his first season at the club he sometimes preferred not to play.
The exit of Tonali to Newcastle United is still very painful for many Milan fans as they saw a boyhood fan of the club depart, albeit for a huge amount of money. His adventure in England didn’t start in an ideal way with his suspension due to betting activity.
Nonetheless, he returned at the end of August and was part of a team that won Newcastle’s first trophy in decades: the Carabao Cup. There continues to be speculation about a potential return to Milan though, which is likely to continue.
Tonali gave an interview to Cronache di Spogliatoio and a full version will be released in the next few hours. The midfielder spoke a lot about the Rossoneri, with MilanNews relaying the words from the preview released.
On the ban…
“I know I made a mistake, I know I paid, I know I worked to be a better man. But at the beginning, in the first 5-6 months, when I hadn’t yet understood my mistake, my head was telling me: ‘Sandro, you didn’t make a mistake’. That was the danger.
“If you don’t follow the same path as me, if you don’t lose anything, it’s difficult for you to understand the mistake. If tomorrow you lost your job and your family, you would immediately understand that you had done something wrong.
“An examination of conscience would automatically be triggered inside you. In my situation it was a little different: no one took my salary away from me, they just blocked my job. How can you say: ‘Yes, for a year I’ll go to the psychologist 4 times a week even if it’s not mandatory instead of staying at home’?”
On returning to the pitch…
“When I came back I played the first 3-4 games with desire, energy, adrenaline. I reached a huge peak, then from the following matches I felt the sprint. At a certain point they always expected that type of performance and when I dropped off, in England they asked themselves: ‘Oh, what happened?’.
“In reality it’s a normal thing. We found a path, we managed ourselves. Between August and November I played 2-3 games as a starter, but I still had a lot of minutes because I came on for 45 minutes or half an hour. Never just for one minute, because it wouldn’t have been of any use to me.”
On being away from Italy…
“I was lucky to be in England. I lived 7 months without a phone, without a tablet. I only watched TV for matches and films. I didn’t watch the news, I didn’t get any news. Also because I imagine that in that period there wasn’t… ‘Sandro Tonali made a ...
