Arsenal could walk away from Bruno Guimarães move as £50m claims go public

Bruno Guimarães could yet stay at Newcastle United after a report came out suggesting that Arsenal are unwilling to pay Newcastle's asking price.

Last week's Newcastle headlines were dominated by the story that broke around Bruno Guimarães having told Newcastle that he'd like the opportunity to move to Arsenal amid reports that the Premier League champions were keen to sign the Magpies' skipper.

Intermediaries working on behalf of Bruno had been testing the waters with Arsenal, and it looked as though there was solid interest there, although there had been no club-to-club contact.

Guimarães told Newcastle that he was open to the move, but stated that he wouldn't stamp his feet and demand a move, and if the offer from Arsenal wasn't up to what Newcastle were after, he would still be happy to stay on Tyneside. He wanted Newcastle to get value for money, knowing his importance to the club.

There was no release clause despite reports

The latest report coming from The Telegraph is that Arsenal were under the impression that there was a £50 million release clause in Bruno's contract that would allow him to move for that fee should Newcastle fail to qualify for the Champions League, which of course they did.

No such agreement existed, which was confirmed in a two-word response by former Newcastle co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi, who was involved in Bruno's latest contract.

Replying to Luke Edwards on X, Ghodoussi simply replied, "Utter nonsense". Without context, it would be hard to ascertain what he was referring to exactly, but as the report refers to a contract clause that Ghoddousi would have been party to had it existed, we can assume that's what he meant.

Arsenal aren't willing to pay over the odds for Bruno Guimarães

Edwards would follow up his posting of the article with another one saying that there's a difference between being interested in a player at £50 million and paying £100 million.

"My thoughts on Bruno and Arsenal are as follows. Arsenal like him; Bruno likes them. But there is a big difference between liking a player at £50m and wanting that same player at almost double the price."

What happens now? Well, we'll have to see if Arsenal actually make an approach, because as yet they still haven't spoken to Newcastle. The Magpies' stance remains that they want to keep Bruno Guimarães, and it would take a huge offer to get them to change their minds.

It sounds like Arsenal aren't willing to pay what Newcastle feel their captain is worth, so right now there's a good chance that he stays. 

It's also very naive of Arsenal to expect Newcastle to honour what amounts to what sounded like a verbal agreement between Bruno and Amanda Staveley when Staveley left the club two years ago.

We'll soon see just how truthful Bruno was when he said he wouldn't force a move if the clubs couldn't agree a fee.