Watch Howe's response to new Bruno Guimaraes claims during Friday's press conference

by Olly Hawkins · 26 April 2024, 11:15

Last night, Fabrizio Romano released an exclusive claiming Bruno Guimaraes' £100m release clause will be active from the last week of May to the start of the final week of June.

As expected, Eddie Howe has been quizzed on the matter during today's press conference, where he's confirmed the one-month window for clubs to sign the Brazilian for a set fee.

However, the Newcastle boss has praised our planning and the structure of his buyout clause, feeling it's vital there is an early 'finish point' to avoid 'constant speculation' on his future all summer, feeling that wouldn't be healthy for the club or Bruno himself.

https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/status/1783789880964784542

Asked about the June deadline, Howe said: "I'm aware of his contractual status. Having that was well planned and structured by the club, in a sense there is a finish point. We don’t want the constant speculation, I don’t think that’s healthy for the player or for us.

“It's something we don't have control over so I don't tend to worry about it. It goes without saying we want to keep him, I want to build our team around him. His form has been very good — he seems very happy and settled. He’ll be thinking about a very busy summer ahead, where hopefully we can take the team with him a big part of it. But we aren’t in control of that so let’s see.”

As the last line shows, Howe was unable to make any guarantees on Bruno's future, but it is a smart move from the club. Not only would it give us the bulk of the summer window to replace the 26-year-old (hopefully it doesn't come to that) and spend the money received, the cut-off point falls just before the 30th June deadline for PSR, meaning any £100m fee received by then would put us in an extremely healthy position for the financial year.

After that, we would be in full control of any negotiations and transfer fee, which would be well above £100m, you would think. So, either he leaves at a time that gives us a huge cash injection and several months to spend it or he stays put and we build with Bruno.