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PIF have signed some fantastic players during their time at Newcastle United.

Though Eddie Howe deserves a huge amount of respect for transforming the Newcastle careers of the likes of Fabian Schar, Miguel Almiron, Joe Willock and Joelinton during his time at the club, few would doubt the signings have helped.

Alexander Isak continues to dazzle up front. Kieran Trippier has been a game-changer. Sven Botman often looks imperious. Anthony Gordon is coming good. The recruitment has been so impressive.

Then, there’s Bruno Guimaraes.

The £40m star has been a standout at St James’ Park since his arrival from Lyon and more than deserves his new contract.

Indeed, it seems Newcastle struck gold when they signed the midfielder.

Newcastle now have one of the most expensive players in the entire Premier League

Transfermarkt recently updated their market value of players in the English top flight.

Isak features down in 23^rd with a valuation of €70m, which roughly equates to £60.5m. Guimaraes, meanwhile, has seen his value rise by €15m (£12.91m) to a whopping €85m (£73.5m), sitting eighth in their list.

In fact the only players who rank higher than Guimaraes in terms of value are Erling Haaland, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Declan Rice, Rodri, Moises Caicedo and Martin Odegaard.

What a signing for Newcastle

Guimaraes is the beating heart of Newcastle’s team. As per WhoScored data, he ranks within the top five players in the squad for tackles (2.1), dribbles (1.4), key passes (1.6) and fouls drawn (2.3) per game.

An all-action presence in the middle of the park, he starred as a box-to-box option in his opening few months before moving to dictate play in a more unfamiliar deeper role. Pretty much everything he’s touched has turned to gold.

Indeed, it’s hard to put into words just how good a signing he’s been. What a player and a vindication of PIF‘s transfer policy not to target fading superstars who perhaps had a bigger profile before he signed.