Completely happy Sunday everybody.
Arsenal yesterday accomplished the £75m signing of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle. The 28 12 months outdated has signed a 4 12 months take care of an possibility for yet one more, and regardless of some earlier with us which hasn’t at all times been appreciated, I do assume this can be a very strong signing. He even referenced that in his first interview, saying:
“Rice despatched me a message: ‘Come right here and please no extra fights, now we’re buddies!’ I used to be completely satisfied he messaged me.
“Each time after I play in opposition to [Arsenal] it was very robust. They hold the ball, they defend like one. I feel that mixture is the way in which I wish to play as effectively.”
He additionally laid out his motivation for leaving Newcastle, the place he’s been since 2022, and worn the captain’s armband too:
“I’m on the level of my life the place I would like a problem like this. I wish to win trophies, I wish to make historical past and I feel I’m in the appropriate place to do it. I’m so excited to start out. I wish to win for Arsenal. I wish to win extra trophies in my profession, and I feel I’m in the appropriate place, at my peak at 28 years outdated.”
I did wince a bit at his use of the phrase ‘warrior’ in his arsenal.com interview, as a result of for all his high quality as a participant, he’s somebody for whom the purple mist comes down a bit simply, and I simply fear a bit that some fouls he received away with earlier than received’t be neglected as simply in purple and white. That mentioned, he has only one purple card in his total profession, and I noticed one thing on social media yesterday about how he’s a participant who ‘wins’ plenty of fouls himself. You don’t need him to get rid of the combative edge which has been a part of why he’s been so efficient in his profession, however you must make sure that he doesn’t do the silly stuff like elbow a participant at the back of the top as a result of he’s had a rush of blood. It’s loopy that wasn’t a purple card on the time, and something related will unquestionably be a sending off in our shirt.
For extra on what he brings as a participant, Phil’s profile piece goes into extra element in that regard, and I’m actually to see what the plan is for him. Within the announcement, Sporting Director Andrea Berta mentioned:
Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box participant. He’ll permit Mikel to additional develop our taking part in type and also will enhance our inner competitiveness, which is important for sustaining the requirements required after we are aiming to win main trophies.
Proper now, you’d think about that when everybody’s prepared our midfield mixture goes to sometimes be Bruno + Rice + 1 extra. Which suggests there’s plenty of competitors between Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Zubimendi and Ethan Nwaneri to be that different man. And a few of them are extra suited to that position than others. Nonetheless, perhaps there’s a plan we’re not conscious of, a midfield development we don’t anticipate, so let’s see. I do really feel like his arrival is just not notably excellent news for Zubimendi and Myles specifically, however we are able to let it play out and see the place we’re in a number of months time.
It comes all the way down to this: Arsenal have offered Christian Norgaard and primarily changed him with Bruno Guimaraes, and with all due respect to the Danish worldwide, there’s little question that’s a major improve. Amid all of the angst and fretting across the Vinicius Junior pursuit and what we’d do subsequent now that that state of affairs is completed and dusted, I don’t assume we must always lose sight of this being a extremely huge deal in pure footballing phrases. No matter the way you view his previous interactions with us, he’s a really, superb participant and I feel he improves us, which is the underside line for any deal actually.
I additionally discovered attention-grabbing the snippet in The Athletic piece (£) about how he was a participant we might have signed in 2022, however Mikel Arteta felt he wasn’t fairly proper at the moment. He clearly feels totally different now, however maybe any regrets we didn’t do it again then may be offset by the way it may doubtlessly have impacted the arrival of Declan Rice. Perhaps it nonetheless would have occurred, however generally the timing simply doesn’t work. Anyway, he’s right here now, he’s going to play rather a lot, and let’s hope that we see the very best of a participant with a number of expertise, a number of Premier League expertise, and loads of starvation to win the largest trophies.
In a while, Arsenal face Borussia Dortmund, kick off there may be 14.00. Will Bruno be concerned? I assume we’ll discover out sooner or later, and I’m positive the supervisor will likely be hoping for a greater efficiency than we noticed in Dublin through the week.
Proper, I’ll go away it there, get pleasure from your Sunday people.
