BRUNO IN FINE TOON
‘I’m excited by the potential of club’
BRUNO GUIMARAES has insisted Newcastle United can surprise the Premier League elite this season.
The Brazil international says a summer of £55million spending is “just the beginning” of the club’s Saudi-funded rebuild and the club can “dream” of qualifying for the Champions League again… one day.
Guimaraes has had a landmark summer. After starring in two Brazil victories he proposed in Greece to fiancee Ana Lidia Martins, they have a baby boy on the way, and he will hope to star in November’s World Cup in Qatar.
He enjoyed a break, including hosting ex-Lyon team-mate and “brother” Lucas Paqueta for a kickabout in his Jesmond back garden, wearing a black- and-white shirt.
While £50m-rated Paqueta will not be joining United at the moment, Guimaraes said: “We can surprise the others. We have quality and the coach (Eddie Howe) is so intelligent.
“We dream of the Champions League but it’s step by step. We don’t need to put pressure on ourselves.
“This is only the beginning. We know the big six have good teams.
“The Premier League is the most difficult championship in the world so we need to be calm, and step by step we can arrive there.
“I’m excited for this season and the potential this club has. We know there is difficulty but we want to arrive as high as possible. We need to improve more. We can dream higher.”
Speaking in Austria at Newcastle’s training camp, Guimaraes says he has never felt so at home in his life, since starting out at his first Brazilian club Paranaense.
He said: “It is such a special moment, the most special time in my personal and professional life.
“In the next year we will be married, it’s so nice – it was my dream. We are waiting for our baby too.
“We are so happy. I got on one knee. It was a beautiful moment in Greece… such a beautiful place.
“I feel home now. My English is better and I feel good and I am very happy here. It is nice to feel this.
“The last time I felt this way was when I played for my first club in Brazil.
“It is nice to feel at home and I really love the fans. It is a pleasure for me.”
Guimaraes is pleased to have some new team-mates after Newcastle brought in Sven Botman, Nick Pope and Matt Targett, with a bigmoney forward being searched for.
He added: “We are stronger than last season of course. We are working to be ready for next season.”
Guimaraes has only trained for five days at United’s Austria training camp and, summing up the hard work Eddie Howe has put the squad through, he revealed: “I am not fit yet. I am dead!
“I feel very tired but we need this. We know the intensity.”