Guimaraes' importance - the numbers
- Published
Rebuilding the squad was always on the cards at St James' Park this summer.
Newcastle, fresh from a settlement with Uefa, have needed to sell in order to significantly reinvest.
Anthony Gordon completed a £69.3m move to Barcelona while Sandro Tonali joined Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth up to £100m.
Such sales have helped to create headroom for Newcastle to spend within the game's financial rules.
There is a cold argument that this could also be the right time to cash in on Bruno Guimaraes, who tuns 29 in November.
Yet that does not take into account the Brazilian's true value to Newcastle as the team's beating heart.
Newcastle have suffered plenty of defeats with Guimaraes in the side, but it is a little telling that the club have only won two of the 16 Premier League games their influential talisman has missed since he joined.
Without Guimaraes, Newcastle's win percentage (12.5%), points per game (0.7), average goals for (0.8) and even average goals against (1.6) all suffer in the top flight.
Although it is an admittedly larger sample size, Opta data shows that Newcastle's win percentage (50.7%), points per game (1.7), average goals for (1.9) and average goals against (1.3) have been significantly higher when Guimaraes has featured.
Given his importance, season ticket holder Liam Phillips said he would be "absolutely devastated" if Guimaraes moves on, particularly after the midfielder's arrival signalled "hope and ambition" in 2022.
"His departure would be very symbolic in terms of what it says about the trajectory of the project," he said.
"Newcastle have lost Isak, Gordon and Tonali in the last 12 months. To lose Bruno would be very alarming."
