Newcastle United did not “want” or “plan” to sell Bruno Guimaraes this summer but the club hierarchy have defended the fee they received and are adamant they will “react” by bringing in further reinforcements.Guimaraes, who was Newcastle’s captain and talisman, is joining Arsenal for a fixed price of £75million ($100.8m), despite the club having previously insisted that he was not for sale.Ross Wilson, the sporting director, claims Arsenal are paying a “world-record fee for a player of his age”, while David Hopkinson, the CEO, insists the Premier League champions have parted with far more than they intended to for Guimaraes, even if Newcastle had hoped to extract an even greater price.There is no ill-feeling towards Guimaraes from Newcastle’s executives, even if the midfielder clearly communicated his desire to depart. Guimaraes held meetings with Wilson in La Manga, Spain, early this week after joining Newcastle’s pre-season training camp on Monday, and reiterated his desire to depart.Once Arsenal reached a figure Newcastle deemed acceptable, Guimaraes was reluctantly granted his wish, and new head coach Matthias Jaissle admitted on Thursday that he was not involved in the decision to let the midfielder go, with the call already made. The Brazilian broke down in tears when saying his farewells to his soon to be former team-mates on Wednesday.“We didn’t want to sell Bruno,” Wilson said, when addressing journalists during a short on-the-record briefing on a balcony overlooking the golf course at the Grand Hyatt La Manga Club, where Newcastle’s training camp is taking place. “It wasn’t in the plan to sell Bruno. None of us — or ownership — wanted to sell Bruno. He’s our captain, he was very, very important to us and the debate over his price — it’s a world-record fee for a player of his age.The details of Bruno Guimaraes' move to Arsenal from Newcastle UnitedDavid Ornstein“What we had to weigh up was, very respectfully from Bruno with his behaviour towards us, very emotionally as well, effectively told us he wanted to leave and move on. That doesn’t mean he can go but it certainly plays a part in what our thinking is when we hit a certain range of number. But there’s no part in saying it was part of our strategy and was in our thinking this summer — it wasn’t.“But we have got to be flexible and react to things that happen. It might have been in our plan to sign one player but we didn’t get him so we move on to another. We can only be honest about that.“We’d love Bruno Guimaraes to be in our squad this summer but I’m sure there are other clubs that have lost players that wish they were in their squads this season. It’s the world we live in, we had to adapt, we had to react. Having such an important player leave is disappointing but having a really important player who doesn’t want to play here anymore — for himself, he’s honest about that — it was the only decision we could make.”Hopkinson, meanwhile, offered further insight into the negotiations with Arsenal and how the £75m figure was reached. Newcastle had been resolute in their public stance that they would not be bullied into accepting a lower fee.“It was not the fee that I think Arsenal had hoped to pay and of course we would have liked an even higher number, ” Hopkinson said. “But I think you’re dealing with sophisticated actors on both sides and that’s what negotiation looks like.“It’s a fee that satisfies us. If you want a put a merchandising spin on it, it’s the highest fee for a player in that position at that age.“Is that a good deal for Newcastle United? I believe it is. But Arsenal is getting a very special player and special person so this works from a financial perspective for both sides.”Guimaraes helped lead Newcastle to the Carabao Cup in 2025. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)Newcastle have recouped an impressive £245m in player sales this summer, but they have lost three key players in Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and now Guimaraes.Around £150m has already been invested in five new signings this summer, four of whom are aged 20 or under, but there is an acceptance that, ideally, experience and leadership will be brought in, too.The Guimaraes-shaped hole in the team will be difficult to plug, but Newcastle intend to replace their departed skipper once they have given Jaissle further time to fully assess his player pool.“We want to strengthen the squad,” Wilson said. “We’ve already strengthened the squad, we wanted to have a clear stamp on the window as to what our identity looked like, we wanted to re-energise and refresh it and we can feel it now in a big way.“The new coach can feel it in a different way because he didn’t work with the players we had before.“Of course we want to add more. The support of the guys is there as well. Matthias wants to assess what we have, he’s been doing that for some time now so he’s got a view on that already and we’re aligned on what we want to do.“What we also don’t want to do is make any mistakes by jumping to do something that we don’t really want to do to tick a box. We’re active in the market.”Hopkinson outlined at length his vision for “Newcastle United 2.0” during an interview with The Athletic this week, but Wilson has offered further perspective from the sporting side of the club for the change in direction this summer.Newcastle were fined €6m by UEFA for breaching their financial regulations and have signed up to a strict compliance agreement, so their ‘trading model’ had to be recast.“We’re trying to create a model that works for us. I say that with utmost respect for what has gone before,” Wilson said.“We have to build a model here that can compete, can win, but also one that works for us and doesn’t lead us to have to sell players we don’t want to sell and lead to UEFA sanctions.“What we’re trying to do is build a model across our men’s first team, our academy, through our women’s team that really works for us. The word I’ve tried to use more than any other since I came is alignment right through the club.“I don’t want any areas that feel like desert islands.”The stadium development plans are a subject of much interest. (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)Newcastle’s executives only spoke for around six minutes on the record, but they were flanked by PIF officials, including director Jacobo Solis and minority owner Jamie Reuben, who have been in attendance for part of the training camp.There was a solitary question about whether the club is ready to announce their new state-of-the-art training ground plans, with land being acquired in Woolsington near Newcastle International Airport, or if a decision has been made regarding the stadium. The expectation is that Newcastle will build a new stadium on Leazes Park, next door to their current ground, though extending St James’ Park remains an option.“No,” Hopkinson said, when asked if there is an update on infrastructure projects. “There’s a pregnant pause in that answer. Training ground we are moving quite quickly on. (I) had a conversation about it today and that conversation isn’t quite finished yet.“I’m optimistic we’re going to make a training ground announcement very soon. One of the themes I’ve been wrestling with the last while — couple of weeks, a month — is how do we balance transparency and transaction?“You guys are dogged, your constituents want to know. And we want our stakeholders to know. But in the moment as we’re trying to conclude a transaction is not the moment to tell people, ‘Here’s what we’re trying to do.’“Being fully transparent about what we wanted to do with Leazes Terrace (which are Grade 1-listed buildings adjacent to St James’ and were purchased by the club for more than £20m earlier this year) would have been diametrically opposed to being able to actually conclude that deal.“We’re going to buy some land for our future training ground and getting really granular on what we pay and where it is wouldn’t be helpful.“We want to be transparent but that doesn’t mean we can invite everyone into every part of the strategy.”