Some corners of Newcastle United’s Twitter community hit the big red panic button last night as it came to light that Bruno Guimaraes had spoken of his relationship with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
Following Newcastle’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, Bruno spoke to ESPN Brazil (via Fabrizio Romano’s Twitter) to laud Pep Guardiola as a ‘genius’ and ‘the best coach in history’ while mentioning that he and Pep have spoken several times.
Bruno pays respect to Pep Guardiola – why wouldn’t he?
Understandably, the Toon Army started to read a bit too much into it and tried to join dots that probably aren’t there. Although it does come off the back of Manchester City being linked with an interest in the Brazilian in a 90min article this season.
On face value, the comments are worrying for sure, but when you take the time to think it through, things aren’t as bad as they seem, especially when you factor in Bruno’s love for Newcastle.
It’s hard to deny Pep’s pedigree. The things he’s done in management are brilliant, and he’s quite rightly hailed as one of, if not the best in the game. A player like Bruno Guimaraes is obviously going to respect that and if he had said something like “I don’t rate him, personally” he’d have looked like an idiot.
I’ll admit that the “we have a good relationship” part of the quote is a harder pill to swallow, but it’s not unusual for players and coaches from opposing teams to form friendships.
One thing that should put our minds at ease, though, is what Bruno said after picking up his Football Writers Player Of The Year award last night: “When I said yes to Newcastle, I was sure I was choosing a big project. From the bottom of my heart, I didn’t expected to live the wonderful things I’m living here. Respect for the team, love for the fans and each day feeling more at home. Thanks for everyone that made possible to live all of this.”
Going nowhere
Those aren’t the words of a man with even so much as a pinky toe out the door. He’s all-in, full blown committed to Newcastle. Of course it’s easy to say that all players say things like that, but it’s the frequency in which Bruno says things like this that really hammer home just how happy he is on Tyneside.
He told The Chronicle back in October that he’s committed to the project at Newcastle and it’s unlikely that anything has changed after guiding Newcastle to their first major cup final of the millennium.
So as long as this project is on the right track, I can’t see Bruno going anywhere unless we want him to. The adoration between him and the fans is mutual. We have made him one of our own.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
