Arsenal Close to Signing Bruno Guimaraes for £80m

Arsenal are on the brink of landing Bruno Guimaraes in a deal that underlines exactly where the club now see themselves: at the very top of the game, and determined to stay there.

The Gunners have agreed a fee with Newcastle worth around £75million, potentially rising to £80m, for the Brazil midfielder. It is a statement signing, both in cost and in profile, and one that has been a long time in the making.

Guimaraes, fresh from Brazil’s World Cup campaign and a post-tournament holiday, joined Newcastle’s pre-season camp in Spain on Monday. He is now expected to cut that trip short, fly back to the UK and complete his medical before sealing a four-year contract at Arsenal that runs until the summer of 2030.

The 26-year-old has already spoken with new manager Mikel Arteta, but you would not have known it from the Arsenal manager’s public stance in Dublin on Wednesday night. After a 3-1 friendly defeat by Real Betis, Arteta was asked directly about Guimaraes and shut the conversation down.

"I'm not going to talk about any players who aren't Arsenal players," he said when pressed on how big a boost Guimaraes would be to his squad.

The question came again, framed around the lift such a high-level arrival would give the champions.

"Well," Arteta replied, "I can tell you at the moment that something happens and we can announce it. I will give you my straight answer."

For now, the straight answers are arriving off the pitch. Guimaraes will be Arsenal’s fourth signing of a busy summer window that has been aggressive, targeted and expensive.

The champions have already brought in Greek winger Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge in a £34m deal, adding another direct, creative option in the final third. They moved quickly to snap up goalkeeper Illan Meslier on a free transfer after his departure from Leeds, bolstering competition in goal without touching the budget.

They have also tied down one of last season’s most useful pieces of business. Arsenal triggered their option to make Piero Hincapie’s loan from Bayer Leverkusen permanent, paying around £34.5m for the versatile Ecuador defender who can operate at centre-back or on the left.

Piece by piece, the squad that won the Premier League is being upgraded, deepened, hardened for another title push and a demanding European campaign.

And still, Arsenal are thinking bigger.

The club are ready to move if an opening appears for Vinicius Jr, Guimaraes’ Brazil team-mate and one of the elite attacking talents in world football. Any deal for the Real Madrid forward would be the boldest transfer in Arsenal’s history, a signing that would reverberate far beyond north London.

Vinicius has entered the final 12 months of his contract at the Bernabeu, a situation that has inevitably attracted attention from Europe’s wealthiest clubs. Arsenal are watching closely.

Yet Madrid have hardly been passive. Crunch talks on Wednesday between the Spanish giants and the player’s representatives are understood to have gone well, with the LaLiga champions and head coach Jose Mourinho now confident that Vinicius will commit to a lucrative new deal and stay in the Spanish capital.

For Arsenal, that potential door may close before it ever truly opens. Inside the dressing room, though, the ambition is clear.

Defender Riccardo Calafiori, speaking after the defeat to Betis in Dublin, did not hide the level of player he believes the club must now attract.

“We are on that level now. We are on top,” the Italian said. “We want to win the league again and we want to be even better than last season if we can. We need these kind of players, I think."

Guimaraes fits that description. So does Vinicius. One looks almost certain to arrive, the other may yet prove unreachable.

Either way, Arsenal are acting like champions who have no intention of treating last season as a high-water mark. They are building as if this era is only just beginning.