Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson has broken the club's silence on the much-talked about sale of Bruno Guimaraes, insisting Arsenal were forced to pay a fee they didn't want to. Bruno's sale has left Newcastle without their inspirational skipper for the Premier League's big kick off, and while he will be replaced before the window shuts, it has been deemed a setback behind the scenes.
Arsenal's Bids and the Final Fee
Arsenal spent six weeks of whispering between agents and third parties before finally coming to the table with two bids, the first of which was rejected. The verbal conversation had actually started at a paltry £45million for the Brazil star. Newcastle then eventually accepted a £75m fee that will be paid in two instalments, with all of the money to be paid without add-ons or incentives.
Hopkinson, speaking in La Manga on Newcastle's summer tour, said: "It was not the fee that I think Arsenal had hoped to pay and of course we would have liked an even higher number. But I think you're dealing with sophisticated actors on both sides and that's what negotiation looks like."
Record Fee for His Age and Position
The fee for Bruno represents the biggest fee paid in football history for a player of his age in that position. And while there had been talk of £85m price, and even a valuation of close to £100m, Hopkinson insists that Newcastle got a 'good deal' - even despite needing to pay around £7m to Guimaraes' old club Lyon due to a sell-on clause.
Hopkinson said: "It's a fee that satisfies us. If you want to put a merchandising spin on it, it's the highest fee for a player in that position at that age. Is that a good deal for Newcastle United? I believe it is. But Arsenal is getting a very special player and special person so this works from a financial perspective for both sides."
More Deals Expected
Bazoumana Toure, Aladji Bamba, Ewen Jaouen, Lukas Hornicek and Sean Steur are already through the door. But Hopkinson - and new manager Matthias Jaissle - insisted that there will be more deals on the way with the squad that finished 12th last season considered stale by club chiefs.
Hopkinson said: "This is a moment of change. Life is all change but there's certain moments of punctuation and we're in one of those moments of punctuation right now. Drawing attention to that is not something to be fearful of, it's where we kick off."
Wilson on Bruno's Exit
Transfer chief Ross Wilson will now work on a replacement for Guimaraes. However, while the Brazilian's exit had some similarities to Alexander Isak's high profile sale to Liverpool last summer, Wilson feels his professional behaviour could not be faulted.
Speaking about Bruno's sale Wilson said: "We didn't want to sell Bruno. It wasn't in the plan to sell Bruno. None of us - or ownership - wanted to sell Bruno. He's our captain, he was very, very important to us and the debate over his price - it's a world record fee for a player of his age. What we had to weigh up was, very respectfully from Bruno with his behaviour towards us, very emotionally as well, effectively told us he wanted to leave and move on. That doesn't mean he can go but it certainly plays a part in what our thinking is when we hit a certain range of number. But there's no point in saying it was part of our strategy and was in our thinking this summer - it wasn't. But we have got to be flexible and react to things that happen. It might have been in our plan to sign one player but we didn't get him so we move on to another. We can only be honest about that. We'd love Bruno Guimares to be in our squad this summer but I'm sure there are other clubs that have lost players that wish they were in their squads this season. It's the world we live in, we had to adapt, we had to react. Having such an important player leave is disappointing but having a really important player who doesn't want to play here anymore - for himself, he's honest about that - it was the only decision we could make."
