Despite yesterday’s headlines about Bruno Guimaraes opening up on his decision to reject Arsenal, the reality is much more mundane.

Writing on Twitter on Monday, The Telegraph claimed “Bruno Guimaraes has revealed he snubbed interest from Arsenal to join Newcastle United because he has been convinced the club will rapidly grow into a global power”.

In the actual article, they wrote that Bruno was answering a question about why he had “rejected interest from Arsenal to sign for Newcastle”.

But both of these statements are misrepresentations of what actually happened.

In the interview, the Newcastle United midfielder wasn’t asked why he rejected Arsenal. He was asked whether he sees Newcastle as bigger or as big as the Gunners.

“We are definitely going to be a club that is going to be a big power in world football,” Guimaraes said in response.

“This is a historic club with a great tradition and a beautiful history, I have no doubts about my decision to come to Newcastle.”

As you can see, the player made no reference to rejecting Arsenal. In fact, he made no specific reference to Arsenal at all.

If anything, the response reads as if Guimaraes was wary of suggesting Newcastle are currently as big as Arsenal, twice repeating that the club are “going to be” big in the future.

It’s the bare minimum you’d expect him to say in response. If he turned up and suggested Newcastle would never be on the level of Arsenal and the rest of the big six, that would be worth a headline.

To take such a mundane quote and twist it up to say something the player didn’t say just shows how little they had to work with.

The reality is that Bruno Guimaraes didn’t say anything about rejecting Arsenal. That’s mostly because Arsenal didn’t bid for him, so he didn’t ever have the option to reject Arsenal.