“Newcastle are astonished” - Baffling Bruno Guimaraes details revealed after Arsenal request

The Bruno Guimarães story is getting crazier with each update as the Newcastle United captain tells the club he wants a move to Arsenal.

According to several reports, Bruno Guimarães has told Newcastle United that he would like to move to Arsenal after the Premier League champions have shown interest in the Toon skipper.

There's a theory that Bruno is hurting from the World Cup exit and has reevaluated his career, with the Brazilian turning 29 in November and still only having that Carabao Cup title to his name.

Newcastle United have been adamant all summer that Bruno is not for sale; however, the club has slapped a huge price tag on their captain, approaching £100 million. Guimarães is under contract for another two years, and Newcastle have the option to extend it by a further year, so they are under no pressure in that regard to bow down to a low bid.

Additionally, it's believed that Bruno will not force the move if the clubs cannot agree on a fee; however, it's that agreement that remains elusive in the deal as Newcastle haven't been approached by the Gunners as yet.

Astonished, astounded, confused, perplexed

The reports all mention intermediaries working on behalf of Bruno and Arsenal, but there has been no club-to-club contact despite reports of a £55 million bid having been rejected.

Keith Downie, speaking on his YouTube channel, has claimed that Newcastle are 'astonished' at the reports of Bruno wanting to join Arsenal as they've not heard from the club at all.

"The situation regarding Gimmear is, as we know, that yesterday we ran the news broken first by the Athletic's David Ornstein. I have to say that Bruno Guimarães has alerted Newcastle as to his willingness to want to speak to or explore a move to Arsenal. He essentially has told Newcastle he wants to leave. Now, I don't know, I have to be honest, whether that's directly or indirectly because every time I've asked the club the direct question, I've been told that they don't want to get dragged into this. 

"But what I can say from Newcastle's point of view is that they are astonished, astounded, confused, perplexed by the fact that Bruno Guimarães has said he wants to explore a move to Arsenal when Arsenal have yet to make an offer or even directly contacted Newcastle regarding the Brazilian international. It's incredible. I've never heard of this before."

Could a bumper contract keep Bruno at Newcastle?

If what Downie has been told is true, then that throws the whole £55 million bid story into question too. There can't have been a bid if Arsenal hadn't reached out to Newcastle.

Also, I know we keep saying this, but what ever happened to 'tapping up'? Isn't approaching a player without the club's permission against the rules? Clearly, they've left a loophole wide open somewhere that these agents are able to exploit, but it needs closing.

Keith Downie does go on to say that he's 50/50 on whether Bruno stays or goes, saying he can see a scenario where Newcastle break their wage structure to offer him a bumper deal to stay. We'd be more than happy with that. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if this is actually Bruno's plan all along.

If the money is right, anyone's for sale

Our overall position remains the same, though. If Arsenal are willing to pay what Newcastle want, which is believed to be around £90 million (or £75 million depending on the source), then as much as it will hurt to see him go to a Premier League club, we should cash in.

He's 29 in a couple of months, and while he's worth more to us than any monetary value can really cover, the reality is, football is a business, and in this day and age of all the financial restrictions, we'd be crazy to turn down such big money for a player about to embark on the downward slope of his career. He will still be a legend to us. 

It's better to have loved and lost and all that.