Arsenal are reportedly ready to put their money where their mouth is and make a £70m offer for Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes, according to BBC Sport. And honestly, you can see exactly why Mikel Arteta wants him.
Guimaraes has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League since the day he arrived at St James' Park. He's the kind of player who makes everyone around him look better, he wins the ball back, he drives forward, he scores goals and he leads from the front. Newcastle made him captain for a reason. The lad is genuinely top drawer.
For Arsenal, it makes a lot of sense. They've been grinding away at Manchester City's dominance for a couple of seasons now and while their squad is very good, adding someone of Guimaraes' quality to that engine room would be a serious upgrade. He'd slot in alongside Declan Rice and the two of them together would be a proper handful for any team in Europe. Arteta clearly knows what he's doing in the transfer market and this feels like a very Arsenal kind of move, ambitious, smart and slightly cheeky.
The big question is whether £70m is anywhere near enough to get Newcastle to even pick up the phone. Eddie Howe has built this team around Guimaraes and losing him would hurt badly. Newcastle are no longer a selling club in the traditional sense, they've got serious money behind them and they don't need to sell their best players. If anything, they'll probably laugh at £70m and tell Arsenal to come back with something more convincing.
From a neutral point of view, this is a transfer saga worth watching. It's got all the ingredients. A brilliant player, a big club flexing, and a selling club with the power to say no. As a United fan, the thought of Guimaraes at Arsenal is a slightly uncomfortable one, but you have to be fair and admit it would make them genuinely stronger.
Whether the fee gets there or not remains to be seen, but this story is far from over.
Let me know your thoughts.