The huge flag unfurled in the Gallowgate End read: “Da Alianca e do Rio ao Newcastle-upon-Tyne, uma casa longe de casa. Joelinton e Bruno, nossos Geordies Brasileiros.”
No need to hit Google translate. Here’s the English version: “From Alianca and Rio to Newcastle upon Tyne, a home away from home, Joelinton and Bruno, our Brazilian Geordies.”
As love letters go, it was a pretty emphatic message to a player whose future plans still feel uncertain.
Thanks to a tactically timed leak to encourage one of those tedious transfer sagas, we now know the rules of engagement around Bruno Guimaraes. A £100m clause that can be triggered until the end of June, interest from the Premier League’s top two and Paris Saint-Germain, who are going to have plenty of money and financial fair play headroom to spend this summer.
But peel back the layers and it is not quite-so-simple. i has been told emphatically that Arsenal’s position in terms of Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) – both domestically and in terms of hitting Uefa’s rules – means spending £100m before the end of the financial year is impossible.
So they will have to either tempt Newcastle with a lower bid – a prospect scoffed at by Newcastle insiders who want to keep their Brazil midfielder – or wait until later in the summer, when the Magpies can dictate the price.
Pep Guardiola is a big fan but will Manchester City back him up if the price is nine figures for a 27-year-old? Well Guardiola’s desire to bring Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice didn’t survive contact with the king-makers at the Etihad. It is by no means a given that interest turns into a firm bid.
And what of PSG? French football royalty but Guimaraes is understood to love playing in the Premier League. Would a return to Ligue 1 appeal for the former Lyon midfielder?
Guimaraes does not give the impression of a player deperate to move though he swerved requests to speak to the media in the mixed zone after Saturday’s game, probably anticipating the tone of the questioning. There is enough of a corridor of uncertainty there to make his every move between now and mid-summer the subject of interest from transfer obsessives both on Tyneside and beyond.
Newcastle feel their sales pitch to him for at least another year is gaining momentum and Wor Flags’ banner was a timely one. The group made sure that Joelinton, who has just committed his future to the club and whose absence is so keenly felt in Newcastle’s midfield, was present too. That connection could hold sway.
So too does a potential Europa League campaign, which sits tantalisingly in the Magpies’ grasp – not least because of Guimaraes’ own contribution in the second half. After a lacklustre first period (he was not alone), he stepped through the gears and scored to sweep aside Sheffield United.
His expression after scoring looked more like the release of frustration than outright elation, lifting a corner flag to his adoring public, but the lovebombing had its impact. He told club media he had shed a tear in the dressing room before the game. Romance or cold, hard ambition and cash?
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/CJwiMUt
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