Newcastle United must find a way to keep Bruno Guimarães
Newcastle United is staring down the possibility of losing Bruno Guimarães, but Eddie Howe's side must find a way to keep its star midfielder.
On January 30, 2022, Newcastle United made an acquisition that would all but instantly reshape the scope of the club’s reputation and history. After spending two seasons at Ligue 1 club Lyon, Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimarães made the move to the Premier League and began to call Saint James Park his home stadium.
Over the course of his tenure with the team, Guimarães has emerged as one of the top midfielders in the Premier League and a leader of remarkable team success.
With Guimarães helping to lead the way, Newcastle ended a 47-year drought by reaching the EFL Cup Final in 2022-23. That same season, the team finished fourth in the Premier League table—its highest placement since 2002-03.
2023-24 has been far less kind to the Magpies, as injuries have piled up and inevitably stalled a bit of the club’s momentum.
Unfortunately, that’s one of the reasons some believe this might be the Brazlian’s final season with Newcastle United. With the financial limitations imposed upon the Premier League continuing to put pressure on clubs to cut costs, some have speculated that Guimarães could be a necessary loss.
According to James Sharpe of The Daily Mail, two powerhouse clubs may have interest in Guimarães this coming transfer window: Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain—at a potential price of £100 million.
While it’s certainly understandable to consider such a move, Guimarâes is too great of a player to justify the potential loss. He’s the epitome of what many pundits would argue a true center midfielder is meant to be.
While lacking one true specialty may create less appeal on the stat sheet, it’s the box-to-box versatility that makes the Brazilian the arguable top player on an injured but talented Newcastle side. Unfortunately, without the statistical brilliance that so often drives sports debates and conversations, Guimarâes has managed to fly somewhat under the radar.
Newcastle cannot afford to make that same mistake of undervaluing the 26-year-old’s spectacular contributions.
Over the course of his 80 Premier League appearances, Guimarâes has 25 goal involvements to his name, with 13 goals scored and 12 assists. Those are certainly respectable numbers, especially considering that he plays all over the pitch—literally.
In 2023-24, only James Ward-Prowse has covered a further distance than Guimarães’ 343 kilometers.
Specifically on the offensive, Guimarães is beyond reliable in creating opportunities. He ranks sixth in the Premier League in successful through balls with 19. The only players who rank ahead of him are Martin Ødegaard, Lucas Paquetá, Cole Palmer, Bruno Fernandes, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Considering each of those players is viewed in the light of an offensive dynamo, it’s even more impressive that Guimarães plays such a prominent role defensively.
In a pure illustration of his defensive value, Guimarães ranks in the Top 15 in the EPL in tackles and also cracks the Top 40 in interceptions. Despite this constant involvement in plays on both ends of the pitch, he has a total of zero errors leading to opponent goals—in his entire Premier League career.
Found in the middle of his success in the attacking and defensive thirds is the fact that he ranks eighth in the Premier League in touches and 15th in passes—perhaps the ultimate illustration of the fact that he’s the true epitome of a box-to-box midfielder.
It’s also worth noting that Guimarães averages 1.64 chances created in open play per 90 minutes. That is far ahead of fellow star-caliber defensive midfielders Rodri (1.46) and Declan Rice (0.73).
Furthermore, according to FBRef.com, Guimarães ranks in the 90th percentile in progressive passes and the 91st percentile in shot-creating actions. He also ranks in the top half of midfielders across the men’s big five leagues, UCL, and UEL over the past 365 days in Tackles (73rd percentile), Interceptions (56th), and Blocks (65th).
For what it’s worth, Guimarães is also first in the Premier League in fouls drawn with 89.
It speaks volumes about his selflessness as a player that Guimarães plays with such relentless energy and intensity, yet remains satisfied to create chances for the team rather than himself. This isn’t to say that he’s an incapable goal scorer, as he has found the back of the net 13 times in Premier League action since joining the EPL.
Rather than focus on the ego plays, however, Newcastle has a leader who simply wants the team to succeed. With the most goal involvements of any Newcastle midfielder in 2023-24, and a consistent commitment to defending at a high level, Guimarães is the type of player every club would benefit from having.
The type of player Newcastle cannot afford to lose.