Key facts
- Agreed transfer fee: £75 million (about $101 million), per widespread UK reports and The Guardian, cited August 5, 2026
- Newcastle had rejected a £70m opening bid; Arsenal wanted to pay under £60m, Newcastle sought at least £80m, before compromising
- Newcastle bought Guimaraes from Lyon in January 2022 for about £40m; his sale nets Newcastle roughly £28-29m profit after a 20% sell-on fee owed to Lyon (about £6-7m)
- Guimaraes made 153 Premier League appearances for Newcastle with 30 goals and 26 assists, per The Guardian; Sporting News cites 381 total appearances across competitions
- Fee would be Arsenal’s second-largest ever, behind Declan Rice’s £100m move in 2023, and the fifth-biggest Premier League fee of the current window
- Comes amid Newcastle upheaval: Eddie Howe stepped down as manager, Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali have all left the club recently
The deal
Arsenal and Newcastle United have agreed a fee for Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, with reports on August 5, 2026 putting the transfer at £75 million (about $101 million, per Sporting News’ conversion). The Guardian reports the two sides compromised on £75m after Newcastle had rejected an opening £70m offer earlier that week and had originally demanded at least £80m, while Arsenal had wanted to pay no more than £60m. Guimaraes, who is Newcastle’s captain, was due to leave the club’s pre-season training camp in southern Spain and fly to London for a medical in north London in the days following the agreement.
What Guimaraes brings and what he cost
Guimaraes turns 29 in November and has two years left on his Newcastle contract, according to the Guardian. Newcastle bought him from Lyon in January 2022 for a reported fee of around £40m (about $53.8m). Selling him for £75m gives Newcastle a gross profit of roughly £35m, though Lyon are owed 20% of that profit under a sell-on clause, worth an estimated £6-7m, leaving Newcastle a net gain in the region of £28-29m ($37.7-39m).
Sporting News notes the fee makes Guimaraes Arsenal’s second-most expensive signing ever, behind Declan Rice’s initial £100m move in July 2023, and puts him fifth among the biggest Premier League fees of this transfer window — below Manchester City’s £116m ($156m) deal for Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest and Sandro Tonali’s £100m ($135m) move from Newcastle to Tottenham. If Arsenal amortize the fee over an assumed three-year contract, that works out to about £25m ($33.6m) a year, which Sporting News frames as roughly a quarter of what Arsenal earned for reaching last season’s Champions League final.
His Newcastle record and the club’s turmoil
The Guardian reports Guimaraes made 153 league appearances for Newcastle, scoring 30 goals and adding 26 assists since arriving from Lyon in January 2022; Sporting News separately cites 381 total appearances across all competitions. He was a key figure in Newcastle’s 2025 Carabao/League Cup final win over Liverpool, the club’s first domestic trophy in 70 years, and played in two Champions League campaigns under Eddie Howe. His exit follows a turbulent Newcastle summer: Alexander Isak left for Liverpool in a prolonged saga last year, Anthony Gordon moved to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali joined Tottenham this summer, and Howe stepped down after more than four and a half years in charge, following a 4-1 pre-season friendly loss to Bristol City. Newcastle were also beaten 7-2 by Barcelona in the Champions League last season, per Sporting News. The Guardian says Guimaraes met incoming Newcastle manager Matthias Jaissle in La Manga and told him he wanted to leave and could not be talked out of it; the split is described as cordial, unlike Isak’s acrimonious departure.
Timeline of the negotiation
The Athletic’s David Ornstein reported on July 31 that Arsenal had an agreement in principle with Newcastle. Guimaraes rejoined Newcastle training in Spain on August 3 after initially staying away, and Newcastle rejected an Arsenal opening bid around that point per the i Paper’s Mark Douglas. Terms were finalized on August 5, with a medical to follow in London within days.
Sources
Featured photo: Clubhouse TV via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)