Tonali's sale to Spurs - are Newcastle on wrong side of history with rules?

Tonali's sale to Spurs - are Newcastle on wrong side of history with rules?Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali were part of the Newcastle United side which ended a 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy by winning the Carabao Cup in 2025ByCiaran Kelly, Newcastle United reporter and Dale Johnson, Football issues correspondentPublished2 minutes agoCommentsElliot Anderson was always going to go on and flourish.But when Newcastle United reluctantly sold the midfielder to Nottingham Forest to avoid a breach of profit and sustainability rule (PSR) in 2024, club executives were still somewhat relieved they had kept hold of their more established names.This side have been taken apart in the past 12 months, however, and several key figures have wanted to move on.Alexander Isak pushed to join Liverpool for a British record £125m last summer.Anthony Gordon completed a £69m switch to Barcelona before the window even opened.Sandro Tonali is set to move to Tottenham in a deal worth up to £100m.Should Newcastle's belated shift to a trading model come as a huge surprise, particularly after a 12th-placed finish in the Premier League last season?Newcastle may theoretically be able to spend more within the rules, which have a higher threshold for clubs who are not competing in Europe.But the club were never going to recklessly push against Uefa's guardrails.Newcastle made it clear this week they were "committed to full ongoing compliance" as part of a settlement with Uefa following a breach of its financial sustainability regulations.Raising funds through the sales of Gordon and Tonali was always going to be crucial to significantly reinvest this summer.Newcastle on the wrong side of historyIt had been previously been suggested externally that Newcastle could stand to benefit from missing out on Europe.This is because the Premier League's separate squad-cost ratio (SCR) regulations allow clubs not competing in Uefa...