Bruno Guimaraes fails to meet Newcastle deadline for second time after Arsenal decision

Bruno Guimaraes failed to arrive as planned at Newcastle’s pre-season camp on Sunday night despite expectations to the contrary. Sources at the northeast club have confirmed that Newcastle remain calm about the situation with the player now expected to join up later today.

This is the second change of return date for the Brazilian midfielder heavily linked with a move to Arsenal. Initially, he was supposed to join up with the squad on Friday, as confirmed by former head coach Eddie Howe and teammate Harvey Barnes.

"That's a good question. The details I don't actually know but I see no reason why that wouldn't be the case [to return on the Friday],” Howe said following the Wednesday defeat in pre-season to Bristol City.

"He is back in on Friday, so it will be good to see him," Barnes told Chronicle Live.

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"He's the captain of the football club, so it'll be exciting to have him back. You want to keep your best players, of course, you do. He's a big part of what we've got going on here.”

This naturally has not transpired, and now Newcastle await his arrival today. Should he indeed turn up, he will meet up with the expected new head coach, Matthias Jaissle, although there is an expectation talks will centre around his desire to make the switch to North London.

football.london understands that talks that have taken place with intermediaries have been centred around agreeing a fee that Arsenal would then pay. The magic number is believed to be around £80million with add-ons a key part of the deal.

Arsenal’s squad are expected to be in Dublin this week for their second official pre-season friendly of the summer, after their win over Girona, in which new signing Christos Tzolis made his debut and scored.

Arsenal’s Brazilian players Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli are expected to feature having returned to training last week. Guimaraes’ preparations have seemingly been interrupted by the ongoing uncertainty of his future.

If he was to complete a move this week, the earliest likely involvement for Arsenal would be in their friendly at the Emirates against Borussia Dortmind on Sunday. But a lot would need to happen between now and then for that to take place.

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