​Let’s take a look at the scoreboard. If Bruno Guimaraes’ departure proves to be Newcastle United’s final exit of this transfer window, his move could be read as a 3-0 defeat for the club. It would be another heavy blow to the good ship Newcastle United and everyone who sails with her after the earlier sales of Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali.
On the flip side, an ageing squad in dire need of fresh faces has just been buoyed by the arrival of a young goalkeeper, a young midfielder, and a young winger. Once Johan Manzambi completes his World Cup campaign, he is expected to become the club’s second young midfield addition. I calculate that as a 4-3 win for the Mags.
Critics of Eddie Howe’s recruitment policy often argue that he relies on proven Premier League names. This summer’s activity, however, undermines that claim as flimsy as a cardboard colander. And it’s not like the original claim stood up to scrutiny anyway. When Howe arrived, Bruno Guimaraes had no English Premier League experience. Neither did Sandro Tonali. Nor Alexander Isak. Nor Malick Thiaw. Nor even Anthony Gordon, who was still a relative rookie with only 42 league starts for his boyhood club.
The summer’s early moves included Ewen Jaouen, snapped up from Stade de Reims for £24m to be the club’s 20-year-old goalkeeper. Hoffenheim then agreed to pay £43m for 20-year-old winger Bazoumana Toure to bring him to Tyneside. And more recently, Newcastle sealed a £23m deal for an 18-year-old Ajax central midfielder, Sean Steur, who is now officially ours.
Manzambi, who has shone for Switzerland lately with three goals and two assists, is also just 20. If Freiburg allow the switch, they stand to pocket around £49m. It’s a facelift that rival clubs would envy in scope—almost as dramatic as Cher’s stylistic reinventions.
All the talk of “you win nothing with kids” is entertaining, though the phrase often proves a poor guide to outcomes beyond the screen of a TV studio pundit. The debate rarely thrives on hard evidence. This current debate was sparked by Steve Latawski’s provocative take on The Mag about Bruno Guimaraes’ likely exit, which the author suggests is driven by a mix of reasons.
First, Latawski argues that our current captain is unlikely to be in contention for another World Cup finals, given he’ll be nearly 33 in 2030. That line of reasoning feels dubious. Brazil are not exactly overflowing with world-class midfield talents, and if the durable Casemiro can continue to be a fixture at 34 this summer, what exactly would stop Bruno G from competing again in four years’ time? Steve then suggests that with the international window narrowing, Bruno’s pursuit of club honours has become more urgent. It’s a fair point, although to declare that “his medal opportunities with Newcastle United appear to be in meltdown” strikes me as overly pessimistic—unless you subscribe to Hansen’s logic, that is.
Which Newcastle United supporter, sixteen months ago, imagined we would win the League Cup, even on the day of the final? My friend Big Ni would perhaps argue for better SEO rather than accuracy, but the sentiment lingers: expectancy shifts, fortunes ebb and flow, and the narrative of a club’s transfer window rarely unfolds in neat, linear fashion.