Tottenham are aiming to complete one of their highest-profile signings in history by targeting Newcastle star Sandro Tonali and giving him “keys to the project” under Roberto De Zerbi.The Tottenham hierarchy seems intent on proving their commitment to rebuilding Tottenham Hotspur under Roberto De Zerbi.Spurs have been engaged in a flurry of transfer activity from the very beginning of the transfer window. After bringing in Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson on free transfers, they began their pursuit of winger Savinho from Manchester City and have just completed the signing of Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton for £52.5 million. Now, possibly the most significant transfer rumour of the summer emerged, credibly linking Newcastle superstar and midfield staple Sandro Tonali to Tottenham. With Roberto De Zerbi, who views Tonali as his perfect midfielder, said to be the driving force behind the move, let’s evaluate what Tonali could bring to Spurs.Photo by Michael Regan/Getty ImagesThe kind of midfielder Sandro Tonali could be at TottenhamAs a player, Sandro Tonali came through the Italian football system, playing in Roberto De Zerbi’s hometown club, Brescia, before joining and breaking out at AC Milan.His £55 million move to Newcastle in 2023 makes him the most expensive Italian player in history, although he wasn’t able to justify his price tag when a year-long betting ban meant he had to sit out all of the 2023/2024 season.But during his last two seasons at Newcastle, Tonali established himself firmly as one of Newcastle’s best players and was also one of the crucial players in Newcastle’s victorious Carabao Cup run.Alongside Bruno Guimaraes, Tonali formed a crucial part of Newcastle’s midfield, having the physicality, athleticism, but also the ability to combine with other players. Tonali worked as a bit of a gelling agent that made sure Newcastle ticked along nicely.As such, and perhaps this is one of the reasons Roberto De Zerbi is so keen on him, Tonali offers a very nicely balanced and well-rounded profile and would, without a doubt, be both a ceiling and floor raiser at Spurs.While he might not be an outlier in any of the obvious metrics, Tonali’s wide array of abilities, including a good level of technicality, make him an obvious upgrade on any other senior option currently at Spurs.This makes Tonali the exact kind of player Roberto De Zerbi might want to make sure that the Spurs midfield is a functioning unit again. At 26, Tonali would of course come as an experienced head, and his generalist qualities would instantly improve the collective.However, this comes with a massive caveat because, like any player, Sandro Tonali has his weaknesses, and those weaknesses could be bad news for Spurs.How would Sandro Tonali work within the current Spurs squad?While taken on its own, Sandro Tonali could be a fantastic signing, a problem arises when his qualities are viewed within the larger context of the Spurs squad he’d be arriving in.For all of last season, Spurs have struggled with their inability to control games, respond to pressure, while also suffering from issues with progressing the ball and getting into attacking positions. By the end of the season, they were missing all of their most creative players and had to rely on set pieces to truly create dangerous chances.This made creative passing and technical ability one of the obvious priorities this transfer window. Players like Marcos Senesi and van Hecke, or potential signings like Savinho, seem to target the ability to break lines of pressure either through passing or progressive carrying.The fact is that on his own, Sandro Tonali does not target those specific weaknesses in the Spurs midfield, their lack of central progression and press resistance, especially in the middle third.While players like James Maddison have an innate understanding of the speed of a game and know when to slow a game down and then to increase the tempo again to create a favourable situation for his team, Tonali lacks the comfort in possession to have that impact.Sandro Tonali is not the kind of player who can add control to a game, work as a metronome to control the pace of the game, and slow it down if necessary.The obvious example of that is Newcastle’s spell without Bruno Guimaraes last season. Without Bruno’s outstanding passing in the base of Newcastle’s midfield, Tonali had to receive the ball in deeper areas, which hampered Newcastle’s ball progression a lot and was one of the reasons behind their massive drop in form this season.This is why a signing like Sandro Tonali would go from just a good signing to a completely transformative one if paired with a true deep-lying playmaker to control Spurs’ tempo and dictate play.If Spurs could get a player like that on the books, they would instantly elevate their first and second phase of buildup to be one of the best in the league.Don’t get me wrong. Sandro Tonali is a Ferrari of a midfielder and, without a doubt, one of the best box-to-box profiles in the league. If signed, he would almost instantly become the best midfielder on Spurs’ books and probably their best in a fair while in general.But Spurs’ lack of creativity and technicality in midfield has been a brick wall they kept smashing into for so long last season. And driving a Ferrari while on a collision course with that same wall is only a small consolation.READ MORE: Three realistic midfielders Tottenham must sign for De Zerbi, including Manu KoneThe post What £100m Sandro Tonali would bring to Tottenham and why De Zerbi is desperate to sign him - Opinion appeared first on Spurs Web.