Newcastle sporting director Ross Wilson has admitted the club had no intention of selling captain Bruno Guimaraes this summer, despite the Brazilian midfielder edging closer to a £75 million move to Arsenal.
The 28-year-old has not been officially confirmed as an Arsenal player but a deal is understood to have been agreed between the two clubs, with Guimaraes set to become the latest high-profile departure from St James’ Park in what has been a turbulent few months for the Magpies.
Newcastle have already lost Anthony Gordon to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali to Tottenham during the window, while Eddie Howe’s resignation last week added further upheaval to a club in a period of significant transition. Matthias Jaissle was formally appointed as head coach on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters from Newcastle’s pre-season training base in Spain, Wilson was candid about the circumstances surrounding Guimaraes’ departure.
“We didn’t want to sell Bruno. It wasn’t in the plan to sell Bruno. None of us, or ownership, wanted to sell Bruno,” he said.
“He’s our captain, he was very, very important to us and the debate over his price — it’s a world-record fee for a player of his age.
“What we had to weigh up was, very respectfully from Bruno with his behaviour towards us, very emotionally as well, effectively told us he wanted to leave and move on.
“That doesn’t mean he can go but it certainly plays a part in what our thinking is when we hit a certain range of number. But there’s no part in saying it was part of our strategy and was in our thinking this summer – it wasn’t.
“But we have got to be flexible and react to things that happen. It might have been in our plan to sign one player but we didn’t get him so we move on to another. We can only be honest about that.”
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