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Fabrizio Romano makes fresh Newcastle United transfer claim as £52m Man City deal agreed Newcastle United had reportedly wanted to sign Tijjani Reijnders from Manchester City at the start of the summer transfer window. Newcastle United were interested in signing Tijjani Reijnders from Manchester City early in the summer transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano. It comes just as the 28-year-old Dutch midfielder has secured a £52million move to Saudi Pro League side Al Qadsiah. While not directly owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund like Newcastle, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad, Al Ahli and Al Nassr, Al Qadsiah are owned by Saudi Aramco, the biggest company in PIF’s portfolio. But Romano has claimed Newcastle were interested in signing Reijnders at the start of the window and wanted to include the player in negotiations to sign Sandro Tonali. Tonali ended up joining Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth around £100million instead. According to the Italian transfer-narrative expert, Tonali wanted to join a Spurs side on the back of successive 17th-place Premier League finishes and no European football, rather than Manchester City, which has had unrivalled success in English football over the past decade. Speaking on YouTube, Romano said: “Reijnders says yes [to Al Qadsiah] despite interest at the beginning of the window from Newcastle. “Newcastle wanted to include Reijnders in the negotiation for Tonali to Manchester City when City wanted Tonali, but Tonali wanted to go to Tottenham, so in that case it was already over with Newcastle in June.” As reported by The Gazette previously, Tonali’s preference was to move to London, having previously sounded out Spurs’ rivals Arsenal for a move. Once it became clear Arsenal would not be pursuing a transfer and talks with Manchester City didn’t progress, the Italian midfielder was left with no option other than to join Tottenham. Reijnders joined Manchester City from AC Milan last summer for £46.5million, going on to score seven goals in 47 appearances in all competitions during the 2025/26 campaign. Despite featuring regularly in squads, he was limited only only a handful of Premier League starts since the turn of the year.