Where Bruno Guimaraes Will Rank Among Arsenal’s Most Expensive Transfers

Arsenal are closing in on the long-awaited completion of a deal for Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimarães, who is set to become the second most expensive player in club history, according to multiple reports.

For the second summer in a row, Newcastle have found themselves embroiled in a bitter transfer saga which appears to have ended with the reigning Premier League champions buying their best player. Guimarães has long since been convinced to leave Tyneside for the capital but it’s taken a lot longer to secure an agreement from on high.

Newcastle are poised to sanction Guimarães’s exit for the swollen fee of $101 million (£75 million), The Athletic have reported, with the two parties said to have reached a “compromise.” The 28-year-old would follow Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon in leaving St James’ Park this summer at great expense, capping an exodus which reportedly convinced Eddie Howe to tender his resignation as manager.

Mikel Arteta will have a rather contrasting view of the affair from Arsenal’s dugout.

Arsenal’s Most Expensive Transfers of All Time—Ranked

When the Arsenal’s executives sketched up a job application for the Athletic News in 1925, they were appealing to a manager “who will not spend big money on transfers.” Arteta clearly accepted a different brief.

Should Guimarães’s agreement go through at the reported figure, he would trail only Declan Rice in Arsenal’s list of costly acquisitions, most of which have come under Arteta’s watch.

Four of the 10 most expensive transfers in club history were made last summer alone, with Martín Zubimendi, Eberechi Eze, Viktor Gyökeres and Noni Madueke arriving for a combined sum of more than $300 million.

Rank / Player	Bought From (Year)	Fee
1. Declan Rice	West Ham (2023)	$135 million
2. Bruno Guimarães	Newcastle (2026)	$101 million
3. Nicolas Pépé	Lille (2019)	$92 million
4. Kai Havertz	Chelsea (2023)	$87 million
5. Martín Zubimendi	Real Sociedad (2025)	$81 million
6. Eberechi Eze	Crystal Palace (2025)	$80 million
7. Viktor Gyökeres	Sporting (2025)	$77 million
8. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Dortmund (2018)	$74 million
9. Ben White	Brighton (2021)	$68 million
10. Noni Madueke	Chelsea (2025)	$65 million

* Data via Transfermarkt. Assuming Guimarães transfer goes through at reported fee. Figures converted into $ at prevailing rate.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Arsenal’s outlay has surged under Arteta given his appreciation of finances. “The budget is like when you have your wedding,” the Basque boss explained last summer, “you plan your wedding with your wife and you give her a budget and it’s never less, it’s always more.

“When you build a house, it’s always more. Normally this happens. You prepare for different scenarios. Then unfortunate things happen. There are so many variables that can happen but there is a budget. There is always an idea of what we can do, what we can improve, what the priorities are going to be and then let's see if we can do it.”

Arteta is not solely responsible for Arsenal’s eye-watering outlay. Guimarães is set to slide above Nicolas Pépé’s disastrous $92 million acquisition from 2019 which ultimately spelled the end of Unai Emery’s tenure.

Is Bruno Guimaraes Worth $100 Million?

It’s no secret Bruno Guimarães has wanted to join Arsenal. | Stu Forster/Getty Images

As much as Guimarães is undoubtedly a costly recruit, it’s not quite the king’s ransom it may first appear.

Newcastle signed Guimarães for around $58 million from Lyon in 2022 as one of the first statement purchases of the Saudi ownership’s tenure. When he was handed a new five-year deal in October 2023, a temporary $135 million release clause was inserted into his contract. Arsenal have avoided stretching to that sum—which is what Tottenham Hotspur splash on his former teammate Sandro Tonali, who is two years younger but had a longer contract.

When framed in the wider context of this summer’s signings, Guimarães would stand as the fifth most expensive deal, also ranking at considerably cheaper than the Spurs recruit Mateus Fernandes ($114 million). Elliot Anderson, another player in the same position, set Manchester City back a British record fee of $156 million, which was soon surpassed by Morgan Rogers’s move to Chelsea ($157 million).

Guimarães is as talented as these players, if not more so, but the valuation of a transfer has to relate to what he is specifically worth to the club paying all that money. Arsenal already have a stable of reliable midfielders—any two of Rice, Martín Zubimendi, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Mikel Merino would be the envy of many to play behind either Martin Ødegaard or Eberechi Eze—but Guimarães gives Arteta an extra layer of a proven Premier League quality to actually rotate his roster.

Rice and Zubimendi had the life drained out of their legs by the end of the 2025–26 campaign. England and Spain discovered this at the World Cup, as did Arsenal, who limped through the final couple of months of the season. Guimarães has the versatile skillset to replace or play alongside either of them, ensuring the Gunners aren’t so stretched in their quest to build upon last term’s domestic triumph.

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