- 35 Players reported be media to be heading to Arsenal, but we await for the horrors to unfurl
- Maybe some people do believe us: Fifa is not worthy of running anything
By Tony Attwood
Bruno Guimarães Rodriguez Moura is the latest name in the journalistic schedule of players who might or might not come to Arsenal. And to be clear as ever, we have no specific inside information, unlike that which most of the journalists and bloggers claim to have. We just watch the names come and go.
And actually that coming and going of names is rather annoying for it always seems to me as if the journalists and big-time shouty bloggers are treating us with a spot of contempt, telling us that THIS is the player Arsenal are really going after and then expecting us to have forgotten that in a couple of days as another name comes forward and gets a lot of attention.
And for now that new name is Bruno Guimarães
He is a Brazilian midfielder, is the captain of Brazil and the captain of Newcastle United. He played over 32 of the league matches in each of the three seasons between 2022/3 and 2024/5 but slipped down to 29 league games in the season just finished. But interestingly, his goal scoring increased last season as his appearance level dropped – he got nine last season, the largest number of league goals ever in his career.
Newcastle won 14 out of their 38 games last season, scoring 53 and conceding 55 goals. Guimarães joined Newcastle on a four-and-a-half-year contract in January 2022 for around £40m. He has regularly been playing in virtually every league game of the season, although he slipped down to 29 games last season.
However, although his game tally fell back, the number of goals increased, and last season he scored nine goals in those 29 games. He signed his latest contract (for five years) on 7 October 2023 and later became team captain.
Among his many attributes is the amount of ground he covers during matches, which in 2023/4 was said to be more than any other player in the Premier League. He won the League Cup with Newcastle in 2025 after they beat Liverpool.
As an international, he was eligible, in the odd way these things work, to play for Brazil or Spain, and he chose the former, starting with the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 World Cup, which means if he does sign for Arsenal he is likely to go missing from time to time. He was in the team that lost to Norway and missed a penalty in that game.
It is suggested that he is keen to win a trophy before he retires, hence his desire to find a club that is known for achieving such a goal. And this is where his problem arises. Newcastle last won the league in 1927, which my calculator says is 100 years ago. They were runners-up 20 years ago.
Their most recent league trophy was in 2017 when they won the Championship, and their most recent FA Cup win was in 1955, although they did win the League Cup the season before last. So we can get a clue as to why he might want to move, and he has let it be known that he would like to play for a team that is “competing for silverware every season.”
Arsenal are said to be offering £60m, but Newcastle don’t want to sell having already lost Gordon and Tonali from the squad. It is being reported that his agent has had a chat with Arsenal, which is what led to Arsenal preparing a bid to put to Newcastle of around £60m.
It is also being suggested on some fronts that Arsenal are getting increasingly concerned about the fitness of Declan Rice and his unwillingness to admit to problems and thus miss games for treatment. Certainly that appears from the outside to be the case through the internationals, although of course I have no inside information on that.
Meanwhile we now have a broader set of matches representing Arsenal’s August warm-up ahead of the new season. The Emirites Cup games are of course at the Arsenal stadium, the rest are away.
| Date | Home team | Away team | Competition |
| Girona | Arsenal | Friendly | |
| Real Betis | Arsenal | Friendly | |
| Arsenal | Borussia Dortmund | Emirates Cup | |
| Arsenal | Como 1907 | Friendly | |
| Manchester City | Arsenal | Community Shield* |
*Previously called the Charity Shield until it was discovered the FA had failed to keep the proper records and did not have permission from the Charity Commission to use the word “charity”.
It is interesting that two of these games are planned as home matches, as Arsenal are said to be putting a new pitch down, but presumably it is felt that having the games on 9 and 12 August will help play the pitch in and prepare it in readiness for the home game against Coventry at the start of the new season.
Rice is one but Saka and Saliba are also said to be getting pain killing jabs before games . If we are not careful the World farce cup will take it’s toll on us from the start of the season.
Thank you Tony for that report.
I would just like to repeat what I said before, is that Bruno has a better defence stat than most premier league Defensive Midfielders, and that incudes being better defensively than Tonali.
The problem is his age and Newcastles valuation.
At 29 this year his true valuation for his level should be £40m upfront and a further longevity add on of £20m spread over his three year contract, if he is fortunate to last that long, with maybe a further one year optional add on.
But Newcastle are living in a fantasy land after selling a better younger 25 year old Anthony Gorden for only £70m, how can they justify the £60m plus valuation of Bruno that is not as good as Anthony Gorden, and that Bruno will be 29 years old this year, almost 4 years older than Gorden.
Anyway, Bruno would make a good addition as a creative defensive midfielder, if only for a couple of years.
After watching the world cup “disappointing” £130m Alvarez, I am glad Arsenal dodged that bullet. Maybe he’s one for Liverpool to add to their overpriced failures.
Sometimes it’s best to wait before bidding, and look for the bargains, like “half price Declan Rice”! Sorry Westham.
Porter, I share you worry.
Regarding our injury world cup players, their is little Arteta can do or say, but to rest those players for at least 4 weeks after the world cup ends and hope they recover well enough to play, plus he needs to invest in further increasing the squad but with quality equal replacements.
I do worry about cover for Saliba the most, but it seems to be our best players that are carrying injuries, and the question is will they recover in time for the new season to be match fit and ready. Arteta will no doubt have a contingency in place.
Keep the faith, gooners forever.
So Toon have the record of 1 championship in nigh on a century?
I’ve recently read comments regarding Vile and it was asserted they are a ‘big club’ . Lo and behold they’re even worse than Newcastle . A swift check revealed 1 championship in 116 years !
This makes The Seventeenthers of N17 look prolific by comparison.