Darren Bent says 23-year-old Newcastle talent is going to get ‘better and better’

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Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali has been backed by Darren Bent to get “better and better” under Eddie Howe.

The pundit was speaking on talkSPORT about how some of the biggest Premier League signings this summer have fared so far.

Newcastle signed Tonali to much fanfare in July, the Magpies paying AC Milan a reported £55million for his services.

The 23-year-old hasn’t done badly by any means. His workrate, passing and off-the-ball movement have been good, although he’s still getting used to his new environment so obviously he won’t be at his very best just yet.

Bent thinks the Italian has “shown flashes” of his quality and backs him to improve under the tutelage of Newcastle boss Eddie Howe.

“He’s shown flashes of how good he is,” Bent said on talkSPORT. “He’s shown bits where you go ‘oh okay, I can see why they paid a lot money for him’.

“Still probably hasn’t hit the heights that we were expecting but he’s going to get better and better, certainly working with a manager like Eddie Howe.”

Our view

Such is the standard of the Premier League that nowadays you get way too much criticism of new signings who don’t instantly deliver a 7/10 performance every week at the very least.

Sure, you get some like Dominik Szoboszlai, James Maddison and, last season, Erling Haaland who hit the ground running.

Others will need a bit more time to get up to speed. Tonali is a young player who has just joined from a very different league and, as such, it’s understandable that he needs time to get used to the new league and country.