Arsenal step up efforts to sign £100m Newcastle man

Arsenal reportedly have an interest in sealing the transfer of Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and seem prepared to step up their efforts to discuss a possible cash-plus-player deal for the Brazil international.

Guimaraes has shone during his time at St James’ Park and makes sense as the kind of player Mikel Arteta could do with adding to his midfield three alongside Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, with Kai Havertz now clearly seeming to be preferred in a striker role despite some initial uncertainty about his best position when he first joined.

Newcastle surely won’t want to lose an important player like Guimaraes this summer, and he’s protected by a £100million release clause, which the Gunners could try to get down by including players in the deal.

That’s surely the only way for Arsenal to make this work after spending such big money last year, and reports now claim they could be open to offering one of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Thomas Partey or Eddie Nketiah in talks with NUFC.

It remains to be seen if Newcastle will accept anything like that or insist on the cash being paid up front, but one imagines there are players on the books at the Emirates Stadium that could help them replace Guimaraes and still finish the summer with a strong squad.

Arsenal have also been linked with Alexander Isak at points, but those rumours have quietened down recently as it seems very clear that the Magpies have no intention of letting him go.