£40m Newcastle United agreement imminent as Eddie Howe ‘recommends’ double deal

Bruno Guimaraes is understood to have verbally agreed to extend his stay at Newcastle until June 2028 and is set to sign a new deal in the coming days.

While Magpies head coach Howe remained coy on when the deal will be concluded, he is hopeful of a positive conclusion with discussions taking place since early 2023.

“I don’t know, it’s not something I am involved in day to day,” Howe admitted. “I am focused on so many days it is taken care of by other people. I am sure I will hear hopefully before you but maybe not!”

The Newcastle boss added: “I think for any player the contract is important because you want stability. You want the player to enter training and games without thinking about their future, that’s any player not just Bruno, you want them just thinking about football.

“I’m taking everything off the pitch away from them. Personal issues they may have, contract issues, the football is the most important thing. If any player trains and plays to the best of their ability they are only going to receive good things off the back of that. So fingers crossed we can reach a conclusion.”

Guimaraes signed a four-and-a-half year deal until June 2026 when he joined Newcastle from Lyon in January 2022 for £40million.

Newcastle are also looking to tie midfield duo Sean Longstaff and Joelinton down to new deals with the pair’s current contracts set to expire in June 2025.

Longstaff signed an extension in 2022 while Joelinton is still on the original six-year contract he signed when he joined the club from Hoffenheim for £40million in 2019.

When asked if he would recommend new contracts for the midfielders, Howe responded: “Definitely, we want to try and build up the squad and that doesn’t mean we take for granted keeping the players that we already have.

“We have to give them the right environment to want to stay and hopefully we have. Obviously finances comes into that as well. They are two huge players for us.”