All summer the subject of Bruno Guimaraes' £100million release clause has dominated the headlines as far as Newcastle United goes.
The Magpies offered the Brazilian a new contract last year, making him the highest-paid player in the club's history, but the twist was that a £100million release clause had been inserted into the deal.
Cue widespread panic by Newcastle fans as we braced ourselves for the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Arsenal to trigger the clause and leave us high and dry.
However, as time went on more details about the clause came out, namely that it was only active for four weeks starting at the end of May and finishing at the back end of June ... June 24th to be precise.
The more astute of you may have noticed that today is the 24th June which means that the clause expires on this very day.
The clause expires tonight at midnight according to Fabrizio Romano, but the chances of anything being done about it in one day are very slim, especially with Bruno over in the USA for the Copa America.
Of course, this doesn't mean we'll magically see the end of all the links to Bruno Guimaraes leaving for other clubs all chuffing summer, but knowing that the power to negotiate now rests back with the club will mean that £100million can just be laughed out of the boardroom now.
Bruno Guimaraes and Newcastle have put up a strong united front all summer when it comes to the 26-year-old's future in that his future is at St James' Park.
Shortly before the season ended Bruno bought himself a £4million home in the area, which should have been all the indication anyone needed, really, but that, combined with all the defiant messages still wasn't enough to stop the journos from fantasising about him leaving us in the lurch.
We honestly can't wait to see Bruno step out onto the pitch at St James' Park to take on Southampton on the opening day of the season as the ultimate middle finger to all the doom-pedalling journalists who took great joy in trying to ruin our summer.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
13 | 18 | 34 |
2 |
Arsenal
|
13 | 12 | 25 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
13 | 12 | 25 |
4 |
Brighton
|
13 | 5 | 23 |
5 |
Manchester City
|
13 | 3 | 23 |
6 |
Nottingham Forest
|
13 | 3 | 22 |
7 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
13 | 14 | 20 |
8 |
Brentford
|
13 | 3 | 20 |
9 |
Manchester United
|
13 | 4 | 19 |
10 |
Fulham
|
13 | 0 | 19 |
11 |
Newcastle United
|
13 | 0 | 19 |
12 |
Aston Villa
|
13 | -3 | 19 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
13 | 1 | 18 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
13 | -7 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
13 | -11 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
13 | -11 | 10 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
13 | -7 | 9 |
18 |
Wolves
|
13 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
13 | -11 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
13 | -15 | 5 |