Why signing the new Elliot Anderson could ease Newcastle’s Guimaraes blow

Sadly, it’s only a matter of time until Arsenal dot the i’s and cross the t’s, completing their big-money move for Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes.

When Eddie Howe shocked Tyneside and stepped down from his managerial post at Newcastle earlier this week, it felt like the writing was on the wall.

Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon have already been sold this summer for a combined £169m fee, and now, the Magpies have lost the very essence of their title-winning project, the linchpin of a team who have escaped relegation-fodder status and instead marched through two Champions League campaign.

Last year’s 12th-place Premier League finish was a result of too many damaging sales. The buck has to stop with the now, with a clean slate provided by Howe’s replacement, Matthias Jaissle.

Newcastle’s most damaging recent sales

Newcastle’s Midas touch at the start of the Howe era almost beggared belief. Every transfer target they touched turned to gold, and the likes of Joelinton and Fabian Schar shed their sub-standard skin and grew into mainstays. They are still.

However, that success has ebbed away over the past few years. Sure, Newcastle have been buffeted by the effects of PSR, but they have failed to effectively circumvent the obstacles in their path. They have failed to make good use of the cards they have been dealt.

In 2024, Newcastle sold Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson to Brighton and Nottingham Forest respectively, banking north of £70m for the pair. A stay of execution, sadly, with both Premier League stars now having bloomed into sensations. Anderson, England midfielder, has just completed a £116m transfer to Manchester City, ostensibly as Rodri’s long-term replacement.

Hindsight is so often brutal in football, and it’s true that Anderson could have helped shape the Toon project, had he stayed at the club. Instead, he is elsewhere, along with Tonali and Gordon and Alexander Isak before them.

The true marker of an elite outfit is longevity, and Newcastle have been short-sighted, sadly. However, there is time to turn things around this summer, even with Guimaraes now expected to finalise a transfer to Arsenal.

Newcastle line up bid for the new Anderson

It is being reported that Arsenal have agreed £77m deal with Newcastle to sign the 28-year-old Guimaraes. It’s happening, and PIF have to react emphatically if the Toon are to stay afloat this season.

There has been an undeniable emphasis on signing up-and-coming quality this summer, and that trend doesn’t look like it’s going to stop, with Football Insider reporting that Lucas Bergvall is still a top target at St. James’ Park after a £46m offer was rejected earlier this summer.

It’s understood that Newcastle could return for the Sweden international in the coming days, having already sold Tonali to the N17 side, tipped to ‘outbid’ Nottingham Forest for his signature. Tottenham would reluctantly consider business for a fee of around £60m.

Bergvall has played 78 times for Tottenham, scoring twice and providing nine assists. He has won the Europa League, but that is a lonely outlier against a fast stream of negativity that has plunged the Londoners into chaos over the past two years.

Still, he’s shown his potential, and if Newcastle manage to pull a deal off, they could emulate the deal that saw Anderson leave their own nest and resettle with Nottingham Forest.

Spurs don’t want to sell, but Bergvall has been clear in his desire to explore a fresh challenge. He might not be a fully-fledged superstar yet, but he knows a thing or two about adversity, and has the progressive, naturally gifted technical skillset to make a difference for Jaissle’s side. The prospective new coach implements fast, aggressive football, aligning with Bergvall’s own strengths.

Bergvall won 2.05 tackles per game in the Premier League last year, but that is not the focal point of his strength. He is among the crispest dribblers in the division, completing 62.5% of his attempts. He is difficult to dispossess, and if he can bump up his physicality and creativity on the ball, there’s no reason why Newcastle can’t welcome a new, Anderson-esque talent to the fold this summer.

An elegant, intelligent and almost balletic presence on the ball, Bergvall would gel well with the strength of Aladji Bamba and the effortless passing game of Sean Steur. It would be a young and immature midfield, but the potential would be boundless.

Bergvall has hardly been riding the crest of a wave over the past two years in north London, but he has stood out at times during a time of significant malaise at Tottenham.

There is a reason he has been hailed as “a genuine generational talent” by Spurs’ head of scouting Rob Mackenzie. At Newcastle, he would have the space to cement himself as a mainstay, perhaps easing the pain of Guimaraes’ one-way trip to the capital.