Arsenal confirm £75m Bruno Guimaraes signing as Andrea Berta hails 'strong leader'
Arsenal have announced the signing of Bruno Guimaraes in a deal worth £75million.
The Newcastle captain becomes Mikel Arteta’s fourth summer signing, following the arrivals of Christos Tzolis and Illan Meslier and Piero Hincapie joining on a permanent after his loan spell.
Guimaraes has signed a four-year deal, with the option of a further 12 months, and will wear his favourite No39 shirt number.
Newcastle will pocket around £68m, with the rest of the transfer fee due to Lyon.
Bruno is a player with a great mentality and great quality, who will bring strong leadership to our squad
Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta said: “We are delighted to welcome Bruno Guimaraes to our club.
“Bruno is a player with a great mentality and great quality, who will bring strong leadership to our squad.
“With Bruno joining us, we are further strengthening the heart of our team. As we have all seen, Bruno can play as a defensive midfielder and as a box-to-box player.
“He combines quality with quantity, and has provided goals and assists for his team every year.
“Bruno will allow Mikel [Arteta] to further develop our playing style and will also increase our internal competitiveness, which is essential for maintaining the standards required when we are aiming to win major trophies.”
Mikel Arteta had been keen to sign a midfield who could both play along, and compete for minutes with, Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi.
The purchase of Christian Norgaard last summer failed to live up to expectations, and this week the player joined Everton.
Guimaraes has been brought in to both lift the floor of the squad, and raise the ceiling.
Work on the deal began during the recent 2026 World Cup, when Arsenal become aware that the player was looking to leave Newcastle.
Talks between intermediaries produced at least one unofficial offer of around £55million, before further discussions eventually produced a first official offer last week, which was swiftly rejected.
Club-to-club talks continued, with Guimaraes now at Newcastle’s pre-season camp in Spain where he reiterated his desire to leave to new manager Matthias Jaissle. An agreement on the fee, said to be paid up front, was soon after agreed.