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4 months ago
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Bruno Guimaraes has been a big talking point so far this summer 2024 transfer window.
His brilliant form for Newcastle United these past two and a half seasons making him a much sought after target.
Bruno Guimaraes arguably even better last (2023/24) season considering the club experiencing the worst ever injury situation in NUFC history.
The ability of the player clear and the existence of a release clause in Bruno’s contract only increasing the speculation, this clause inserted when he signed a new contract in October 2023, which runs until 30 June 2028.
Two things have been repeated countless times about the release clause.
Firstly, that the release clause amount is £100m.
Secondly, that the release clause comes to an end on 30 June 2024.
With the latter though, we now have a media exclusive claiming that information is wrong.
That rather than another six days until the release clause is no longer active, it instead actually has only hours left to run…
The Chronicle report on Bruno Guimaraes – 24 June 2024:
‘The problem that has faced Newcastle, though, is that the 26-year-old has a £100million release clause written into his current contract. Manager Eddie Howe confirmed at the end of the season that the clause exists but it expires in the final days of June.
It is believed that deadline is Monday June 24 meaning Newcastle are now poised to be able to ask for whatever fee they desire should an interested party seek to engineer a transfer away from St James’ Park.’
To be honest, I have always felt the transfer release clause was a bit of a red herring.
If the release clause figure is indeed £100m, then I think that is very much in the right ballpark for what Bruno’s market value really is. So it wasn’t/isn’t like any club would have been getting an absolute bargain price deal if triggering the clause.
I also think that the reality is that if a player really wants to leave, then it is pointless forcing him to do so.
So, if Bruno Guimaraes, or indeed anybody else, wanted to leave Newcastle United, then whether a release clause exists or not, is largely irrelevant. That is unless the release clause was far lower than the market value.
The other problem for a club is if a player wanted to leave AND the buying club wanted to take advantage of minimal time left on the contract, to drive down the asking price. The shorter the contract length remaining, the weaker the selling club’s bargaining position.
However, this was dealt with in October 2023, the new contract meaning that now, Bruno Guimaraes is contracted for another four years. That of course is the trade-off, you agree to give a player higher wages in return for him extending his contract.
So if Bruno Guimaraes does leave Newcastle United, whether in these remaining hours/days of his release clause or beyond that, any transfer fee would be around that £100m ballpark figure.
The truth is of course, that it is all about having a happy player at the club and that certainly appears to be the case with Bruno Guimaraes. At the very minimum I think he is 100 per cent committed to giving it at least this 2024/25 season to see what this Newcastle United squad can do, after all the nightmare bad luck with suspensions and injuries the NUFC squad suffered last season.
Bruno Guimaraes was widely reported as having bought a new £4m home on Tyneside that he and his family are moving into this summer, his best mate Joelinton committed long-term as well to Newcastle United with a new contract signed, whilst interview after interview Bruno says how much he loves living here AND playing for NUFC.
I know it doesn’t make anything definite but Bruno Guimaraes heavily used (unlike some other players…) in the marketing of the new 2024/25 home kit.
Whilst reality is that Bruno has a very busy schedule with the Copa America and surely if anything was going to happen this month regarding a release clause triggered move, it had to happen before now. Bruno Guimaraes and Brazil kick-off their Copa America tournament at (all UK times) 2am on Tuesday 25 June against Costa Rice, then up against Miguel Almiron and Paraguay 2am Saturday 29 June, before finally playing Colombia in their final group match – that a kick-off at 2am on Wednesday 3 July. The tournament then going on in the knockout stages up to the Copa America final on Sunday 14 July.
I have no idea how accurate (or not) this Chronicle article was/is, but one thing for sure, at least for me, Bruno Guimaraes isn’t leaving Newcastle United this month (nor indeed any time this summer transfer window, in my opinion.

 
