Happy Sunday everyone.
Arsenal yesterday completed the £75m signing of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle. The 28 year old has signed a four year deal with an option for one more, and despite some previous with us which hasn’t always been appreciated, I do think this is a very solid signing. He even referenced that in his first interview, saying:
“Rice sent me a message: ‘Come here and please no more fights, now we’re friends!’ I was happy he messaged me.
“Every time when I play against [Arsenal] it was very tough. They keep the ball, they defend like one. I think that combination is the way I like to play as well.”
He also laid out his motivation for leaving Newcastle, where he’s been since 2022, and worn the captain’s armband too:
“I’m at the point of my life where I need a challenge like this. I want to win trophies, I want to make history and I think I’m in the right place to do it. I’m so excited to start. I want to win for Arsenal. I want to win more trophies in my career, and I think I’m in the right place, at my peak at 28 years old.”
I did wince a little at his use of the word ‘warrior’ in his arsenal.com interview, because for all his quality as a player, he is someone for whom the red mist comes down a little easily, and I just worry a bit that some fouls he got away with before won’t be overlooked as easily in red and white. That said, he has just one red card in his entire career, and I saw something on social media yesterday about how he is a player who ‘wins’ a lot of fouls himself. You don’t want him to do away with the combative edge which has been part of why he’s been so effective in his career, but you have to make sure he doesn’t do the stupid stuff like elbow a player in the back of the head because he’s had a rush of blood. It’s crazy that wasn’t a red card at the time, and anything similar will unquestionably be a sending off in our shirt.
For more on what he brings as a player, Phil’s profile piece goes into more detail in that regard, and I am really interested to see what the plan is for him. In the announcement, Sporting Director Andrea Berta said:
Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box player. He will allow Mikel to further develop our playing style and will also increase our internal competitiveness, which is essential for maintaining the standards required when we are aiming to win major trophies.
Right now, you’d imagine that when everyone’s ready our midfield combination is going to typically be Bruno + Rice + 1 more. Which means there’s a lot of competition between Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi and Ethan Nwaneri to be that other guy. And some of them are more suited to that role than others. However, maybe there’s a plan we’re not aware of, a midfield construction we don’t expect, so let’s see. I do feel like his arrival is not particularly good news for Zubimendi and Myles in particular, but we can let it play out and see where we are in a few months time.
It comes down to this: Arsenal have sold Christian Norgaard and essentially replaced him with Bruno Guimaraes, and with all due respect to the Danish international, there’s no doubt that’s a significant upgrade. Amid all the angst and fretting around the Vinicius Junior pursuit and what we might do next now that that situation is done and dusted, I don’t think we should lose sight of this being a really big deal in pure footballing terms. Regardless of how you view his past interactions with us, he’s a very, very good player and I think he improves us, which is the bottom line for any deal really.
I also found interesting the snippet in The Athletic piece (£) about how he was a player we could have signed in 2022, but Mikel Arteta felt he wasn’t quite right at that time. He obviously feels different now, but perhaps any regrets we didn’t do it back then can be offset by how it might potentially have impacted the arrival of Declan Rice. Maybe it still would have happened, but sometimes the timing just doesn’t work. Anyway, he’s here now, he’s going to play a lot, and let’s hope that we see the best of a player with lots of talent, lots of Premier League experience, and plenty of hunger to win the biggest trophies.
Later on, Arsenal face Borussia Dortmund, kick off there is 14.00. Will Bruno be involved? I guess we’ll find out in due course, and I’m sure the manager will be hoping for a better performance than we saw in Dublin during the week.
Right, I’ll leave it there, enjoy your Sunday folks.
