Bruno Guimarães is set to leave Newcastle’s pre-season training camp in southern Spain and fly to London before a £75m move to Arsenal. The out-going Newcastle captain is scheduled to undergo a medical in north London in the next couple of days after the two clubs finally compromised on the fee.
While Arsenal had initially wanted to pay no more than £60m for the Brazil midfielder, who turns 29 in November and has two years remaining on his contract, Newcastle demanded a minimum of £80m.
Having sold Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali to Barcelona and Tottenham respectively earlier this summer, Newcastle had no need to sell Guimarães and would have preferred to keep a key player who was integral to their 2025 League Cup triumph.
Since the Brazilian’s arrival from Lyon in January 2022, Newcastle have struggled to win games without Guimarães on the pitch. In his 153 League appearances he scored 30 goals, contributed 26 assists and, as Eddie Howe’s former team twice qualified for the Champions League, became an enduring crowd favourite. The loss of Guimarães is likely to hit Newcastle fans appreciably harder than even Alexander Isak’s defection to Liverpool last year.
Guimarães though was determined to join Arsenal even before Howe stepped down as manager last week. He flew to La Manga to meet the club’s in-coming manager, Matthias Jaissle on Monday but is understood to have told Jaissle he wanted out and could not be persuaded otherwise. The parting is believed to have been cordial and in marked contrast to Isak’s acrimonious exit last summer.
Lyon will receive a windfall in the region of £7m due to a sell on clause that stipulates they are entitled to 20% of any profit Newcastle make on the sale of Guimarães.
Arsenal, who have sanctioned the sale of Christian Norgaard to Everton for £7m in anticipation of bringing in Guimarães, are now expected to step up their attempts to sign a defender and another forward before the end of the transfer window. They could face competition from Liverpool in their attempts to sign Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa due to concerns over William Saliba’s back issues that will see him miss “an extended period”. It is thought that Villa want £60m for the England defender but Arsenal are unwilling to pay that much for a player who has less than two years of his contract remaining.
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Arsenal have also registered their interest in signing Guimarães’ Brazil teammate Vinícius Júnior but are looking at alternatives should he decide to stay at Real Madrid. Barcelona’s sporting director, Deco, is expected to hold talks with Atlético Madrid over Julián Alvarez on Wednesday in a bid to seal a deal for the Argentina forward but Arsenal are hoping that the 26-year-old could yet be persuaded to join them. Mikel Arteta’s side have also been linked with Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola, who is wanted by Liverpool and valued at around £145m by the European champions.
