Reports in Brazil are now linking £40m Newcastle man with PIF-backed Saudi Pro-League club

Many Newcastle United fans woke up this morning to check that nothing happened with Bruno Guimaraes after they went to bed last night as his release clause ticked down to its midnight expiration.

After an agonising four weeks in which Newcastle's star man was free to talk to any clubs who triggered his £100million release clause, the deadline to activate said clause has now passed.

This puts the club back in the driving seat should any interested party come knocking.

Release clause or not, Bruno is always going to be the subject of transfer speculation given his vast talent and the media's belief that the best players are only allowed to play for clubs that win trophies and shouldn't be at clubs trying to improve, or some weird agenda like that, we've never really got our heads around it.

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Bruno Guimaraes transfer speculation never ends

Now a report from Brazilian outlet UOL has claimed that PIF-owned Al-Nassr want Bruno to link up with Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane.

The report does state, however, that as things stand, no contact has been made for the player Newcastle signed for £40million in January 2022, and have, at this point, only made contact about the terms of a deal.

We imagine that those talks were very brief as Newcastle simply said he's not for sale.

Bruno has plenty of things to cross off his to-do list before going to football's retirement home

Bruno is far too ambitious to be thinking about heading to Saudi Arabia when he's not even hit his peak years, and we all know how he has his heart set on La Liga after Newcastle, so there's at least one more stop on his journey before he heads to the Great Yarmouth of the football world.

It just shows, though, that we don't need a release clause to be constantly bombarded with talk of Bruno leaving Newcastle.

We've said it since the season ended and we'll continue to say it until the window shuts (or something mental happens and we're proved wrong) - Bruno Guimaraes will not leave Newcastle United this summer.