Bruno Guimaraes passes his Arsenal medical, and Newcastle’s summer clear-out reaches their captain
Newcastle’s captain has completed a medical at Arsenal and is set to sign a four-year contract, with the 75 million pound fee ending a pursuit that has run all summer.
Aug 6, 2026
Bruno Guimaraes has completed his medical at Arsenal, which leaves paperwork as the only thing standing between the Premier League champions and the biggest signing of their summer. Newcastle’s captain is set to sign a four-year contract, with Arsenal holding an option on a fifth year, and Newcastle will bank around £67m of the £75m fee.
The midfielder was given permission to leave Newcastle’s pre-season camp at La Manga in Spain this week to get the medical done. An announcement is expected shortly. Mikel Arteta has already spoken to him.
A fee that took weeks to settle
Arsenal’s first offer was turned down. The number that eventually satisfied both sides was £75m, and Guimaraes had told Newcastle earlier in the summer that he wanted the move if an acceptable bid arrived, which narrowed the club’s options considerably once Arsenal kept coming back.
Newcastle signed him from Lyon in January 2022 for around £40m, a deal struck in the first window after the takeover, and he became the player the rebuild was organised around. He leaves with 195 appearances and 31 goals. Lyon negotiated a 20 per cent sell-on when they let him go, so roughly €8m of Arsenal’s money will end up in France rather than on Tyneside.
What Arteta is buying
Arsenal won the title last season, their first in 22 years, and then lost the Champions League final to PSG on 30 May at the Puskas Arena in Budapest. Kai Havertz scored early, Ousmane Dembele equalised from the penalty spot, and PSG took the shootout 4-3 to retain the trophy. That is the context for a £75m midfielder in August. A squad that finished a penalty kick short of a double is being asked to go again with more depth in the middle of the pitch.
Guimaraes gives Arteta a different kind of passer alongside Declan Rice. He can sit deep and set the tempo, or push higher and arrive late in the box. He is also 28, which means Arsenal are paying for what he does now rather than what he might become.
The timing is tight but workable. Arsenal host Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup on Sunday, then open the league season at home to Coventry City on Friday 21 August. Two weeks to bed in a new central midfielder is not much, though it beats signing him on deadline day.
Newcastle lose their captain the week they hired a coach
Matthias Jaissle was confirmed as Newcastle head coach on Wednesday, a day before his captain finished a medical somewhere else. The 38-year-old German signed a four-year deal and cost £9.5m in compensation to Al Ahli, and he met the squad at La Manga over the weekend. Eddie Howe stepped down after nearly five years in charge.
Guimaraes is the third significant departure of the window. Sandro Tonali went to Tottenham on 6 July in a package worth £100m, £92.5m up front with £7.5m tied to European qualification. Anthony Gordon joined Barcelona for an initial €70m that can rise past €80m. Add the manager, and Newcastle have turned over the spine of the team and the dugout inside three months.
There is money to spend, which is the part Newcastle supporters will cling to, and Jaissle has a track record of building young sides quickly at Salzburg and Al Ahli. He also has a little over two weeks until Newcastle open at home to Liverpool, with no captain and a squad that has lost its record signing and its main goal threat in the same window. Few new managers get a harder first month.