Is selling Bruno Guimarães the only way Newcastle can rebuild this summer?

Bruno Guimarães is arguably the best player at Newcastle United right now. However, come the summer, the club will need to spend, and the Brazilian is probably key to that.

For the sake of my DMs, I need to make it very clear that I love Bruno Guimarães and I'd ideally never want him to leave. Unfortunately, based on the information we have about 'Financial Fair Play' (joke) and NUFC's finances his departure might be the catalyst for a summer overhaul.

Why Newcastle United could need to sell Bruno to fund a rebuild

Depending on who you believe, we could spend a little over £200 million in this summer's window.

It is expected that sales will increase this number further, but even though it sounds high there are some obvious limitations. We had a look at the £212 million figure in this article, but the caveat is that some of the fees for player sales are generous at best.

So, that brings us to the elephant in the room, letting Bruno Guimarães go for his reported £100 million release clause. And, with Manchester City the most recent club linked to our number 39, Eddie Howe might be about to get used to life without one of his star men.

Jack Grealish's sale still gives us hope for a bright future

Aston Villa are the club we're going to use to prove the point here. Grealish, like Bruno, was a huge part of Villa's best eleven, but one they've moved on from. So, what did they do with that £100 million transfer haul?

Firstly, it's important to remember that an amortised transfer means £100 million coming in can become as much as £300 million going out.

One significant caveat about Bruno is that the transfer fee we paid for him isn't fully resolved. Bruno signed for £30 million, and he's been here for two years now. He signed a new deal, though, so the fee has been stretched considerably.

Let's round down and say we'd have around £200 million to spend from the sale of Bruno, on top of whatever is already there for purchases.

What did Aston Villa do with the Grealish cash?

We'll look only at deals Villa did around or after the Grealish sale, and we'll base it on the same roughly £200 million figured we'd have to play with if someone did meet Bruno's clause.

It's also worth noting that Grealish's sale gave Villa more due to his sale being higher than £100 million and him being an academy player.

• Leon Bailey – £32 million
• Lucas Digne – £30 million
• Àlex Moreno – £13 million
• Philippe Coutinho – £20 million
• Diego Carlos – £30 million
• Paul Torres – £30 million
• Moussa Diaby – £55 million

So, that's just over £200 million in signings, ignoring any other business Villa did.

Wages have to be taken into account here, of course, but it's safe to say the Villans invested well. Signing two full-backs, two centre-backs, and three attackers. And all for the price of one—albeit very good—wide man.

How would Newcastle put another £200 million to use?

In our recent 'fantasy football' transfers article, Ash spent around £250 million, which was based on the funds projected to be available at the start of this article. Now, I will fully admit I doubt we can sign a player like Victor Osimhen to play alongside Alexander Isak, however, we could do a lot with the sort of money being talked about.

Bruno is a pivotal part of Howe's Newcastle team but we have to remember that Sandro Tonali was potentially signed with this scenario in mind. Providing the Italian isn't given a further ban by the English FA, we could have a replacement for Bruno already at the club.

If you want to throw a 'best case' into the mix, as well, Newcastle have been long linked to Amadou Onana of Everton, a more traditional defensive midfielder and someone who could be picked up for around £60 million.

Crucially for the club, however, is squad depth, which is something we need to improve. The sale of Bruno, plus several other outward transfers, could well see us bring in an influx of new faces to build upon as we (hopefully) push back towards the Champions League spots in 2024/25.

Of course, Bruno probably doesn't *need* to leave

And here dear reader is my final trick. As I pirouette into my final pivot. Maybe we just keep Bruno at the club, sell some other players, and keep building around him?

£200 million is still a lot of money (if it's correct). We'll probably sell Miggy and Wilson, while Dummett, Ritchie, Hendrick, Karius, and others should be released on free transfers to ease our wage bill significantly.

A big part of what happens in Bruno's near future comes down to what he wants. He has a release clause in his contract now, so he can leave any window for around £100 million (slightly less to Barcelona if the rumours are true). Such a clause doesn't mean he wants to leave, it might just mean that if we continue to decline, or fail to match his ambition, he can leave.

We'd prefer it if he stays, but the feeling is getting stronger that one of our key men might be departing this summer. There'll be plenty of interest in Bruno if there's even a whiff of him being available and at least one club might be able to meet his clause.