Bruno Guimaraes' Future at Newcastle: What Eddie Howe Says

Eddie Howe knows exactly what Bruno Guimaraes means to Newcastle United. He just can’t promise he’ll still be here when the season starts.

After a 1-1 pre-season draw with Gateshead, the head coach cut a calm but realistic figure as he addressed the future of his captain, with Arsenal preparing a £70m move for the Brazil international and the club determined not to lose their talisman.

“I've had some really good conversations with him before the World Cup, during the World Cup and after the World Cup,” Howe said, keeping the detail behind closed doors. “What we speak about has to remain private, but he's just a great player, a great person.”

Then came the line that will make Newcastle supporters shift in their seats.

“I don't know what's going to happen with Bruno's future. That's for other people to speculate about. They are conversations that I'm not part of.”

Arsenal circling, Newcastle holding their breath

BBC Sport revealed this week that Arsenal are set to test Newcastle’s resolve with a £70m offer. Guimaraes, fresh from Brazil’s last-16 World Cup exit to Norway, has been on holiday with his family and is due back on Tyneside on Friday before flying with the squad to a training camp in Spain.

The situation has inevitably drawn comparisons with last summer, when Liverpool’s pursuit of Alexander Isak ended with the striker pushing to leave. Newcastle lost that battle. The fear is that history might repeat itself with another cornerstone of Howe’s project.

Howe, though, pushed back at the idea that the script is already written.

“You've got to look at it in its own right,” he said. “Bruno is the captain of our football club. He's been an unbelievable player and person all through the time we have worked together.

“I speak on behalf of everyone at the football club. We absolutely love him and, of course, everyone will want him to stay.

“There’s nothing to say Bruno won't be back training with us.”

For now, that’s the thin line Newcastle are walking: affection and ambition on one side, financial reality and elite interest on the other.

Midfield in flux

The timing could hardly be more delicate. Newcastle’s midfield has already taken a major hit with Sandro Tonali’s departure to Tottenham in a deal worth up to £100m. The Italian’s exit strips away another layer of experience and control from the centre of the pitch.

Newcastle’s response has been bold and deliberately youthful. Sean Steur has arrived from Ajax and Aladji Bamba from Monaco, both part of a clear shift towards recruiting high-upside talent aged 20 and under from across the continent. Ewen Jaouen and Bazoumana Toure have followed the same path.

It is a strategy that makes sense on a balance sheet. On the pitch, in the heat of the Premier League, it demands patience, protection and, crucially, leaders around them. Leaders like Guimaraes.

That is why his future matters more than just one transfer fee.

Steur’s first audition

At Gateshead, the new era had an early, intriguing look. Bamba’s move was announced only on Friday, too late for him to feature. Steur, though, played the full 90 minutes and offered a glimpse of why Newcastle were willing to pay a fee that could rise to £23m for an 18-year-old academy graduate.

“He played really well today,” Howe said. “He can be really pleased with his performance and first showing in Newcastle colours.”

Leaving Ajax’s academy at 18 is rare. Doing it for that sort of money is a statement. Newcastle know they are gambling on potential before it “explodes” in value elsewhere and moves beyond their reach.

Those who know Steur best believe the foundations are there. Willem Weijs, his former coach at Jong Ajax, has called him “one of the highest-rated” players in the club’s academy. Against National League opposition, the Dutchman’s technical quality, composure and vision were clear enough.

His touch was clean, his awareness sharp, his passing brave. The ball seemed to stick to him in tight spaces. It was exactly the profile Newcastle thought they were buying.

But the Premier League is a different world. Weijs has already highlighted the obvious next step: the defensive side of his game. Steur must compete more fiercely in duels, spend more time in the gym, grow into the physical demands of English football. Newcastle know this. They are buying what he can become, not what he is today.

A squad that needs time – and its captain

This summer’s recruitment tells its own story. Newcastle are no longer shopping for the finished article; they are trying to get ahead of the market. Steur, Bamba, Jaouen, Toure – all are investments in tomorrow.

That approach carries risk. Young players need minutes, but they also need shelter. They need someone to take the ball under pressure, to dictate tempo, to absorb the chaos when games turn frantic.

They need someone like Bruno Guimaraes.

“We all need to be very supportive to the players that have come in,” Howe said. “I don't think we can put too much pressure on them. It's part of my job to try and take the pressure off them and allow them to develop and to enjoy their time here.”

The problem for Newcastle is obvious. In the past year they have already lost Isak, Tonali and Anthony Gordon. Strip out Guimaraes as well and the spine that carried them back into the elite starts to look unrecognisable.

For now, Howe can only talk about conversations, about admiration, about hope. The guarantees lie elsewhere – in boardrooms, in negotiations, in the ambitions of a captain who has outgrown almost every expectation since he walked through the door.

He is due back on Friday. He is due on the plane to Spain. The next few weeks will decide whether that journey is a staging post in Newcastle’s next chapter with Bruno Guimaraes at its heart, or the closing act of a partnership the club can least afford to lose.