Amanda Staveley has denied agreeing a £50m fee for Bruno Guimaraes to leave Newcastle United if they failed to qualify for the Champions League, amid ongoing links to Arsenal.
Luke Edwards reports for The Telegraph that former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has categorically denied ever holding a conversation with Bruno Guimaraes’ camp where she supposedly agreed to sell the player for £50m if Newcastle United failed to qualify for the Champions League.
Staveley’s husband and fellow former Newcastle co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi also branded the claims “utter nonsense” on social media.
Edwards had reported earlier in the day that Arsenal’s initial move for Guimaraes was based on information from intermediaries that the midfielder could leave Newcastle United for around £50m. But Newcastle and their former owners are all denying this was ever agreed.
It’s worth mentioning that no one else was reporting this supposed agreement to begin with. Edwards and The Telegraph both broke the story and debunked the story all in one day.
Whether Arsenal really did believe that Guimaraes had a £50m clause is therefore unclear, as it seems the bare minimum of research has quickly dismantled the claims.
Guimaraes would like the move to Arsenal, and he’s informed Newcastle of this, but he’ll only push for a transfer if the Gunners get close to Newcastle’s valuation. As it stands, the player is set to return to pre-season training later this month.
Multiple sources have suggested that personal terms will be no issue. The player wants to live in London, he wants to work with Mikel Arteta, he wants to play in the Champions League, and he wants to win trophies.
But none of that is going to matter if Arsenal and Newcastle can’t close the gap on a fee.
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