Newcastle United hope that Aladji Bamba will turn out to be a lot of (positive) things for the club — but they insist being Bruno Guimaraes’ prospective replacement is not one of them.Considering his role and status, the 20-year-old France youth international is more of a Sandro Tonali successor, albeit that is not a tag the club is bestowing upon Bamba either, given his relative inexperience.As with Newcastle’s first three summer acquisitions, Bamba is young, hungry to succeed, wants to play for the club and has huge growth potential. Whether any of that quartet, who have been acquired for a total of more than £110million ($147m), will be deemed ‘ready’ to start the season opener against Liverpool on August 23 is another question — Bazoumana Toure, the winger, is perhaps the most likely to be in the XI at St James’ Park that Sunday afternoon — but their room for growth is significant.Critically, patience will be required when it comes to integrating these raw but high-potential signings.As with Sean Steur, the 18-year-old who has joined from Ajax, Bamba was Tyneside-bound before Newcastle’s interest became public. The club appear pleased that they kept their pursuit of him quiet, with confirmation of a potential deal only arriving once he was already en route to his medical.Aladji Bamba up against Paris FC’s Ciro Immobile in April (Franck Fife/Getty Images)Lewis Miley is expected to assume Tonali’s starting role, with those inside the club backing the 20-year-old academy graduate to step up and become a regular starter this season, once he recovers from a broken foot. That should allow Bamba time to acclimatise but, alongside Steur, the Frenchman will become one of the six midfielders Eddie Howe likes to have in his squad.Newcastle have seven first-team midfielders now, meaning one will likely leave in the weeks to come.They strongly refute the suggestion that Bamba’s arrival frees up Guimaraes to join Arsenal, given the club captain has communicated his desire to explore a move. But Newcastle have yet to receive a club-to-club bid, and will not welcome one, and there are doubts whether Arsenal could ever get close to making an offer that would even make them consider a sale.Instead, Joe Willock is the midfielder most likely to follow Tonali out. The 26-year-old is into the final 12 months of his deal and has been earmarked for an exit. Besiktas, the Turkish club, have expressed an interest.Steur is comfortable playing as a holding No 6 or as a central No 8, so could fill that gap, even if stylistically he is more of a technical creator and Willock is a dynamic runner. Longer term, Steur arguably has the raw attributes to become Guimaraes’ successor, though Newcastle are not considering that for the upcoming campaign, with the idea being that the Dutch teenager will learn from the Brazil international.Bamba, too, would require understanding and time. He broke into the Monaco side last season but has only made 25 senior appearances and was not a guaranteed starter for the Ligue 1 club: across the 2025-26 campaign, he played just 815 minutes in the French top flight and a further 156 in the Champions League.