'We didn’t want to sell Bruno Guimaraes': Newcastle sporting director

Arsenal's move for Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes is nearing completion. Pic: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.

Newcastle sporting director Ross Wilson says the club “didn’t want to sell” captain Bruno Guimaraes.

The 28-year-old midfielder is set to leave the Magpies and join Arsenal for a reported fee of £75m, although confirmation of the move has not been officially announced yet.

Guimaraes’ seemingly impending departure comes following a tough summer for Newcastle, who have already seen Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali exit during the transfer window while head coach Eddie Howe resigned last week, with Matthias Jaissle officially appointed as his replacement on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at Newcastle’s pre-season training camp in Spain, 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 part 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.”