I had planned to give it a few more games this season before writing this type of post, but honestly, I’m that confident I’m right, I’m just going for it now.
Newcastle United are no strangers to signing players in January and having them totally transform our season with blistering form only to come back next season a shadow of their former selves – see Joe Willock, Kenedy and even Papiss Cisse to a degree. I’m sure I wasn’t the only Newcastle fan hoping that this wasn’t going to be the case with Bruno Guimaraes.
Thankfully, after only one game this season, I can confidently say that this absolutely isn’t the case with Bruno. I mean, just look at this heat map against Forest for starters:
Bruno GuimarĂ£es' heat map against Nottingham Forest. đŸ¥µ pic.twitter.com/lomxEUsXEl
— Squawka (@Squawka) August 6, 2022
The man was everywhere, and from that we can’t even see the quality of his passing, his first touch, his calmness under pressure. The man is unflappable. The through balls he was putting through for Almiron were out of this world, his vision and footballing brain are beyond anything we have seen at St James’ Park for years, arguably since Yohan Cabaye. Shelvey can pick a pass on his day, for sure, but he lacks the consistency that Bruno has.
Is Bruno The Best Player We've Ever Had?
Absolutely
Not yet
No
It might be early days or it may even be full-blown hyperbole, but I don’t think Newcastle have had a player at this level since Shearer in his prime. We’ve had some great players for sure, Gini Wijnaldum springs to mind – I remember tweeting about him during his Norwich rout saying that he is simply too good for us – but I’d take Bruno over Gini in a heartbeat.
Are we seeing Newcastle’s greatest ever player …. or am I going too far?