Jaissle knows the next Guimaraes is sat warming the bench at Newcastle

Newcastle United have been resilient at the start of the Matthias Jaissle era. Imperfect, sure, but showing enough promise to convince supporters that they may return to European competition and title contention sooner rather than later.

But there’s still a long way to go on that front. The Magpies have made a solid start to the new season, but they have leant into their deep-rooted resilience and togetherness, still lacking that fluency in progression and solidity in defence that characterised the halcyon days of Eddie Howe’s tenure.

So many summer changes were always going to rock the boat, but one or two of the departures must be considered good business – with Bruno Guimaraes’ big-money move to Arsenal a prime examples on that front.

Why Newcastle hit the jackpot on Bruno Guimaraes

Few of the Newcastle persuasion would argue that Guimaraes’ sale to Arsenal was a better deal than that of Tonali to Tottenham, but both were of merit, in hindsight.

The crux of it is that Tonali was an excellent player at Newcastle. For the most part, he thrived. However, for technical director Ross Wilson to have engineered a £100m move to Spurs should have earned him a big juicy bonus.

However, Guimaraes was a cut above, and will be sorely missed over the coming years. That said, he turns 30 in little over a year, and selling him to Arsenal for £75m is hardly a bad bit of business, having been the centrepiece of Howe’s system.

Moreover, he leaves the club a champion. The Brazil international arrived from Lyon for £40m at the start of the Howe era. He defined that era. He spearheaded Newcastle into two Champions League campaigns, and he drove the outfit forward in 2025 as they quested toward the Carabao Cup title, beating Liverpool in the final.

Guimaraes was sold for good money, but he needed replacing well, and Newcastle may have somehow managed to pull off the same trick – though the new Bruno G is currently warming the bench under Jaissle’s wing.

The next Bruno G is warming the bench at Newcastle

Guimaraes was a world beater, but he has come and gone, and now Newcastle are moving onto new pastures, with one signing looking like he could be the next Guimaraes.

REUTERS/Scott Heppell

Sean Steur is thriving thus far, but it’s actually Aladji Bamba who could be Guimaraes 2.0, with the £35m summer signing from Monaco yet to make a start in the Premier League despite his big-money arrival from France.

It’s worth remembering it was Howe, and not Jaissle, who signed Bamba, but the German coach has confirmed that his hesitance to give the powerful young midfielder minutes is not a reflection of poor quality. Rather, an acceptance that such a young and raw player will need time to adapt to the Premier League. The same point has been attributed to Bazoumana Toure, exciting £43m signing from Hoffenheim.

His time will come. Jaissle’s comments suggested that Bamba is very much expected to ascend to prominence at St. James’ Park, and his natural-born physicality and quality as a “ball-winning monster“, as hailed by Newcastle writer Bradley Robson, emphasises that.

Bamba is not a Guimaraes carbon copy, but he does offer shades of the Brazilian, powerful and combative and shrewdly creative on the ball. He is also a progressive machine, as his dribbling metrics outlined last year in Ligue 1.

Whether Newcastle see the best of Bamba this season remains to be seen, but patience could see him develop into one of the division’s best, emulating Guimaraes in that.

Alongside Steur, Jaissle might be cooking up another Newcastle midfield partnership for the ages.