Arsenal have agreed a £75m fee with Newcastle United for Bruno Guimarães, and the midfielder is expected to leave Newcastle's pre-season camp in southern Spain and fly to London for a medical within days. Sky Sports and The Athletic both reported the fixed fee on 5 August, with Reuters confirming the story citing British media.

The number landed only after a month of wrangling. Arsenal's opening offer of £70m was rejected on Monday 3 August. The London club had wanted to pay no more than £60m; Newcastle held out for at least £80m. They settled in the middle, The Guardian reports, with £75m the compromise neither side originally wanted.

Newcastle had no financial pressure to sell. Guimarães had two years left on his contract — which included a temporary £100m release clause (a fixed price at which a club could sign him regardless of Newcastle's wishes) — and was central to their 2025 League Cup triumph, the club's first major domestic trophy in decades. He arrived from Lyon in January 2022 and made 153 Premier League appearances, scoring 30 goals and adding 26 assists.

But the player's mind was made up well before the money was agreed. Guimarães was determined to join Arsenal even before Eddie Howe stepped down as Newcastle manager. On Monday, he told incoming manager Matthias Jaissle at the La Manga training camp that he wanted to leave. He had not been on Newcastle's original flight to the camp on 31 July, and Newcastle had spent the early weeks of the window publicly insisting he was not for sale — even after agreeing a £51.5m deal for Johan Manzambi in early July.

The backdrop at Newcastle is a summer of upheaval. Anthony Gordon has been sold to Barcelona and Sandro Tonali to Tottenham. Losing their captain on top of those departures leaves Jaissle, who has barely had time to set his bags down, with a significant rebuild before the season starts.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have been clearing the decks. They sold Christian Norgaard to Everton for £7m in anticipation of this deal. Lyon will collect around £7m from the sale as well, thanks to a sell-on clause (a contract term that gives a selling club a percentage of any future transfer fee) entitling them to 20% of Newcastle's profit.

Mikel Arteta is not stopping at midfield. Arsenal have registered interest in Guimarães' Brazil teammate Vinícius Júnior, though Real Madrid's willingness to sell remains uncertain. Paris Saint-Germain's Bradley Barcola, valued at around £145m and also wanted by Liverpool, is another name on the shortlist. At the back, concerns over William Saliba's back — the defender faces an extended spell out — have pushed Arsenal toward Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa. Villa want £60m for a player with under two years left on his contract, and Arsenal are reluctant to meet that figure. Liverpool are also in the conversation for Konsa.

Guimarães, who turns 29 in November, spent part of last season recovering from a hamstring injury that kept him out for two months before returning in April. The interest in him has been building for some time: Manchester United made a move in March, and Real Madrid were linked during the spring. In the end, Arsenal won the race.

For Newcastle fans, this is a hard one. Their captain lifted a trophy at Wembley and chose to walk. For Arsenal, it is a statement of intent from a club that has pushed Manchester City close and is still chasing the title that has eluded them since 2004.