This article was updated at 0924, 5 August.
- The rise of Como and the rise again of Cesc
- Why are Arsenal always portrayed in such a negative light …
by Tony Attwood
According to stories appearing in the media Newcastle are agreeing to the sale of Bruno Guimaraes to Arsenal for £75million, with the money to be paid in one go at the moment of transfer. This is of course quite unusual as most transfers are paid over time. About £8m of the transfer fee will go to Lyon, as part of the original transfer deal between Lyon and Newcastle. Otherwise the rest is profit.
Just in case you feel like knowing his full name is Bruno Guimarães Rodriguez Moura, he was born on 16 November 1997, plays for Brazil as a central midfielder and has been captain of Newcastle. The player is said to have asked for a move away from Newcastle himself.
He initially played for Audax and then on loan with Athletico Paranaense, to whom he was transferred playing 66 games and scoring five goals. They sold him to Lyon who played him 56 times with thre goals coming his way followed by Newcastle where he has played 153 times and scored 30 goals with 32 assits.
We can immediately see the value of winning the league last season with transfers of this nature – players are much more likely to come to a club where there is a very recent history of winning the league. – and come to that the FA Cup and come to that getting to the European Cup (Champions League) final too.
He has played as captain of Newcastle in the recent past. He also won the Carabao Cup last March which was said to be the club’s first trophy since the 1950s. There is of course now the technicality of the medical, and if all is well there, the issue of finding him a house. I wonder if anyone has told him that will cost him most of his first year’s salary.
There will of course be more news on this but I thought I would throw in this from the Guardian today ahead of the forthcoming game… In the interview Ces says
“Mikel (Arteta) was the first player who showed me that I was important to him, that I mattered. He demonstrates real care, if not through a hug. I said: ‘Thank you.’ He said: ‘If you do the same for a teammate one day I’m happy.’ The legacy he left is one I try to pass on so young players feel looked after and that’s an experience that defines Mikel very well.”
Meanwhile according again to the Guardian, “The Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, has accused Gianni Infantino’s administration of “blackmail”, claiming that Fifa threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president’s bid for re-election.”
What I would add i that I don’t normally run transfer stories until I start seeing them turn up in several places, since these pesky journalists do have a habit of making up such tales and then when they don’t happen merely dropping them. But I am now reassured this one is on as the BBC ar erunning it as well, with them citing a “breakthrough in talks”. That either means paying Newcastle more or offering the player higher wages. Or perhaps in this case showing him a copy of the end of season’s table.
The newspaper then adds “…a full agreement is now almost done, with Guimaraes waiting for permission to leave Newcastle’s training base in La Manga, in Spain, to finalise the formalities of his move to Emirates Stadium.”
It is also said that the statutory medical will happen this week, although they are also admitting that there is no confirmation of the cost of the player. The article continues….
“Guimaraes, who joined Newcastle from Lyon in 2022, has made clear his intention to join Arsenal as the 28-year-old has emerged as Mikel Arteta’s first-choice central midfield target. Newcastle and Arsenal have been discussing the finer terms of the deal this week with a final agreement now considered a formality.”
Footnote: Quite why Newcastle want to sell the player can be explained in part at least by the fact that they have “breached Uefa’s financial sustainability regulations, and are now in a three-year settlement agreement with the European governing body,” (accoding to the Sun)
