Bruno Guimaraes: Barcelona is David and Newcastle is Goliath

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 4 min read

Rumours that Bruno Guimaraes could leave Newcastle to join Barcelona have all the hallmarks of one of football’s great David and Goliath stories – but probably not in the way you might imagine.

Barcelona have been one of football’s great superpowers for the last 15 years and would, traditionally, have expected to be able to plunder an opponent that has spent much of that period in the second tier without any problems. No longer.

Indeed, the report from The Sun that Bruno, valued by FootballTransfers at €36 million, could move to Barca seems a distant prospect at best because absolutely everything in this deal – with the exception of history – is weighted in Newcastle’s favour.

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Why Bruno is going nowhere

Of course, the biggest thing that the Magpies have in their favour is economic strength. While Barca president Joan Laporta runs around crazy pulling every financial lever possible and selling off the family silver in the hope of a quick transfer fix, Newcastle are backed by the Saudi state, who are unlikely to have a problem giving Bruno an improved contract.

Why would they? Newcastle are purportedly the richest club in world football right now and splashing out to keep arguably their best player would be a no brainer.

And then there is the status of the two clubs. Newcastle find themselves sitting fourth in the Premier League, undoubtedly the strongest division in the world. They are a team going places.

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Barcelona on the other hand? They are juggling their finances to remain relevant and are firefighting in a bid to retain their status as a top European club. Out of the Champions League at the group stage for the second successive season in a league that is clearly on the slide – three of Spain’s four representatives in the competition are out – they are running out of leverage.

Even if all that fails for Newcastle, they still have the player’s contract. Bruno has a deal that runs until 2026, so they are under no compulsion to sell. There is already talk they would demand a world-record fee for the player. Barca can’t even dream of affording that.

Barcelona did remarkably well to conduct the summer transfer window they did in 2022, but if they were to sign Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, it would be Laporta’s biggest trick yet. Right now, it looks impossible.