The Joelinton transfer comments that will delight Newcastle United and break Man City hearts

Over the course of their entire history, Newcastle United have employed just six Brazilian players. Two of them are on the books at St. James’ Park currently. Bonus points if you can name the other four.

Between them, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes have racked up almost 300 appearances for the Magpies, scoring 42 goals in the process. But the Toon Army’s Samba Boy division share more than just a nationality and a significant place in Eddie Howe’s dressing room; the pair are also close friends, and as such, if one makes an assertion about the other’s future on Tyneside, we would all be well-advised to listen intently.

Speaking this week, Joelinton, who signed a new long-term contract extension with Newcastle back in April, suggested that he believes his pal will be sticking around with him for the foreseeable future. “I think Bruno’s going to stay,” the 27-year-old cult hero said. “He tells me he’s going to come back next week [from a post-Copa América break] and get ready for the season. I know him, he loves the club. He loves the fans, he enjoys his life in Newcastle. I think he’s glad to be there for his life as well as for football.”

It goes without saying that this will be music to the ears of Newcastle supporters everywhere. For a while now, Guimaraes has been touted for a prospective exit this summer. A combination of widespread interest from the upper echelons of the continental game, coupled with recurrent suggestions that the Magpies may need to sell a prized asset or two to appease the gods of Financial Fair Play, have made for some rather uncomfortable mutterings involving the midfielder.

Indeed, as recently as last weekend, reports emerged claiming that Manchester City were lining up an audacious raid for the 26-year-old. With Bruno valued at around £100 million (and perhaps maybe even more) by Newcastle, the idea would have been to significantly lower that asking price by including Etihad starlets Oscar Bobb and James McAtee in a potential agreement, as well as offering a fee of £65 million or so.

Whether that proposal ever comes to fruition, only time will tell, and whether Newcastle would even entertain it is something that only those in the boardroom at St. James’ Park will know for sure. But if Joelinton is to be believed - and there are no reasons as to why he shouldn’t be - then the Toon Army have nothing to worry about.

His buddy is, like him, under contract in the North East until 2028, and if the player himself is not agitating for a move away - and if the Magpies do not feel the financial compulsion to sell - then the expectation must be that Guimaraes will very much still be a Newcastle player by the time the transfer window closes at the end of August.

It may not be as glamorous or as thrilling as a new signing, but Joelinton may just have inadvertently provided the Geordie nation with their best news of the summer.