One of the first big signings made by Newcastle United following a change of ownership was Bruno Guimarães.
The Brazilian midfielder arrived at St James’ Park in a near £40m transfer from Lyon, and it didn’t take long for him to quickly become one of the more important cogs in Eddie Howe’s squad.
He’s one of the reasons Newcastle climbed back up the table after the January transfer window, avoiding relegation comfortably and providing the Tyneside club with the platform needed to progress further.
They have done so this season, and currently sit 10th in the table, albeit having drawn five of their first seven games, showing they are no longer pushovers.
While he was an important player at Lyon as well, there is a feeling he was misused for a period of time, as voiced by the Ligue 1 club’s former director of football, Juninho Pernambucano, who criticised Rudi Garcia on RMC Sport as part of a rant on French football where he made it clear Ligue 1 managers needed to improve in general.
He said, relayed by Onze Mondial: “There are Premier League games which are very difficult to watch. It’s just tackles, intensity, not intelligence. I give the example of Bruno Guimarães. Rudi Garcia killed the kid. He manages in five months to be one of the best players on his team (at Newcastle) thanks to his intelligence.
“I think there is value in Ligue 1 but there are still things to change. All the players who come out of Ligue 1 manage to perform elsewhere, even in the Premier League.”
That can also be seen as praise for Eddie Howe for actually using Guimarães properly at Newcastle, as the Brazilian has scored five times and provided one assist for his teammates in 22 appearances for the Premier League club to date.
