It all came together under Eddie Howe at Newcastle United, huh?
Newcastle have been on quite the ride over the past five years, a rollercoaster of emotion and experiences. Supporters wouldn’t change a thing, though, beating Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and defeating Liverpool at Wembley to lift the Carabao Cup.
Howe probably left at the right time. His project had flown sky-high, but whether he would have been the best man to drive the next phase at St. James’ Park is another matter.
It was Bruno Guimaraes‘ decision to leave and join Arsenal which proved the tipping point. What a captain. What an irreplaceable part of an unforgettable era.
Why Bruno Guimaraes was special at Newcastle
Without Guimaraes at the heart of Howe’s Newcastle system, it’s conceivable that the Premier League would have kept the club in the trenches. The Brazilian was that much of a superstar in midfield.
A leader with a surpassing technical skillset, there’s a genuine case to be made that Guimaraes is “one of the best midfielders in the world“, as asserted by journalist Jake Enthwistle. Arsenal certainly think so, paying £75m to bring him to the Emirates this summer.
We cannot begrudge the former Toon skipper for his desire to explore a move at one of the world’s top-performing clubs. He turns 30 in a year. He won the lot at St. James’ Park, starred as the centrepiece of Howe’s system from the very start, and Newcastle fell by the wayside last term.
|
Guimaraes’ Premier League Career with Newcastle |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Apps |
Goals + Assists |
|
25/26 |
29 |
9 + 5 |
|
24/25 |
38 |
5 + 6 |
|
23/24 |
37 |
7 + 8 |
|
22/23 |
32 |
4 + 5 |
|
21/22 |
17 |
5 + 1 |
Newcastle have rebuilt their midfield. Matthias Jaissle has the likes of Nico Gonzalez, Sean Steur, Aladji Bamba and those still standing from the previous chapter.
However, replacing Guimaraes will take more than just positional worth, and the Magpies appear to have found the new Bruno in the form of someone out wide.
Howcastle have struck gold on the new Guimaraes
Guimaraes was a superstar at Newcastle, and seeing him leave this summer was undeniably difficult, but selling him for a pretty penny after years of service cannot be considered bad business.
His leadership and drive will be missed for a while, though, but in Lewis Hall, Jaissle might just have the perfect solution.
Hall, 22, has been immense so far this season, hailed as “England’s best left-back” by BBC reporter Harry De Cosemo, scoring and assisting across five Premier League outings. More importantly, he has won 2.6 tackles, 6.2 duels and made a whopping 7.2 ball recoveries each game, confirming that, yes, he is the best left-back out there in England right now, perhaps all of English football.
It may also be worth noting that Hall started his career in the middle of the park, when he was a kid making his way at Chelsea’s youth academy. This can be seen through his passing game, his skill and confidence and composure in possession, his intensity when running around.
Manchester United came a-calling this summer, determined to solve their interminable problems at left-back by signing Hall. Newcastle stood firm, demanding £75m for their emerging talisman and resisting Old Trafford’s efforts.
Now, Hall has taken a liking to this incipient Toon project, signing a new contract at the club. More chips have been placed at Newcastle technical director Ross Wilson’s corner of the table. Having signed Hall from Chelsea for £28m, there’s no question that his value will have risen by at least £47m, perhaps more.
This has been a strong start to the season for the England international, whose performances for club and for country have made Thomas Tuchel look a fool for overlooking him ahead of the World Cup.
Hall’s future may not arrive in midfield, but there’s no question that he has the making of a skipper on Tyneside, with the elite potential to nail down his name as the outfit’s new version of Guimaraes.