Newcastle hold talks to seal club-record transfer

Newcastle United cannot catch a break, with the summer transfer window seeming to follow the same drab pattern as last year.

Eddie Howe‘s side left a lot to be desired last season, and paid for their faults with a 12th-place Premier League finish that has cut the Magpies from Champions League contention. However, the manager must feel powerless as his superstars are grabbed like low-hanging fruit.

In fairness, Anthony Gordon is the only mainstay to have left Tyneside so far this summer, the Three Lions winger signing for Barcelona in a £69m deal, but Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali are both being hunted down by a number of Newcastle’s Premier League rivals, and issues in attack still need to be addressed.

Newcastle in talks to replace Guimaraes this summer

Guimaraes has been a consummate leader for Newcastle over the years, certainly the best signing that the Magpies have made since the advent of the PIF era.

Arsenal have already seen a series of informal bids knocked back, and while Newcastle are banging the same drum that the 28-year-old will not be sold, they may well tacitly acknowledge that a nine-digit figure will be too good to turn down.

After all, Borussia Dortmund’s Felix Nmecha has been identified as the perfect replacement, with the Chronicle Live confirming that Newcastle have already held talks for the midfielder who Howe had on his shortlist in 2023, before moving to sign Tonali from AC Milan instead.

Nmecha has been valued at €100m (£87m) by his employers, a figure that would trump Newcastle’s current record capture of Nick Woltemade.

Such a fee is currently proving prohibitive at present, ensuring there is unlikely to be any progress as things stand, although the report does suggest that Howe ‘would love’ to make the German his ‘statement signing’ of the summer.

Manchester United are also thick in the race for the 25-year-old, but if the Toon do end up selling one of Tonali or Guimaraes for a nine-digit figure, perhaps they may well find themselves in a position to re-enter negotiations.

Why Nmecha can replace Guimaraes at Newcastle

Nmecha is quietly developing into a superstar for Germany this summer, building from a base that has been established in the Bundesliga, first with Wolfsburg, and now with Dortmund, becoming a midfield linchpin for the Yellow Wall.

The one-time Manchester City youth is holding things together in Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany system this summer, hailed for his “incredible” quality by his manager, and there’s a case to be made that he’s actually rivalling Brazil’s Guimaraes.

Nmecha is not as inherently creative as Guimaraes. Or rather, he does not place an emphasis on his playmaking ability with the same rapid intensity as Guimaraes.

But there is no question about the Germany international’s capacity to split open hardy defences with a sharp pass. After all, his through ball for Denis Undav to secure for his nation a crucial stoppage time winner against Ivory Coast was a fine representation of exactly that.

The robust, dynamic midfielder has the skillset to dovetail into Howe’s Newcastle system and help them back into the ascendancy. Even if Guimaraes is sold, his is a profile that could align with the intense and multi-functional demands that Howe’s system demands to fire on all cylinders.

By completing this signing, it would surely allow Newcastle to part ways with Guimaraes; a superstar, of course, but someone who turns 30 next year, and could represent excellent business, if sold for a pretty penny this summer ahead of a much-needed rebuild.

Nmecha has announced himself on the global stage, but he has hit the right notes for some time over in the Bundesliga, now earning the wider acclaim that his performances deserve.

Losing Guimaraes to a Premier League rival such as Arsenal would be a blow, and no mistake, but if Newcastle replace their Brazilian maestro with Nmecha, Howe might just find himself leading the Toon back into the limelight.