Guimaraes is keen to leave Newcastle United this summer and join Arsenal
Simon Jordan
Simon Jordan(Image: talkSPORT)
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Newcastle United need to regain control of the Bruno Guimaraes transfer saga and sit the player and his agent down for a conversation where they explain clearly he will stay at the club if their asking price is not met.
That is the view of former Crystal Palace owner and talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan, who claims Newcastle will sell Guimaraes at the right price, despite their stance that their captain is not for sale.
News emerged on Wednesday evening that Guimaraes had informed Newcastle he wanted to leave the club to join Arsenal, amid interest from the Premier League champions.
However, there has been no club to club contact and Newcastle would not welcome any, despite talk of a £60million bid being readied by the Gunners.
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It is the type of situation Jordan, as a former football club owner, has experience of, and he has offered his advice to Newcastle's decision makers.
"It is easier said than done," Jordan told talkSPORT when asked if Newcastle should be looking to keep Guimaraes at the club. "I had a case in point specifically with Andrew Johnson (at Crystal Palace) but my relationship with Andrew Johnson that when I sat down with him, he wanted to go, Palace had been relegated, he was in the England team, Everton wanted to buy him and he wanted to go.
"He was told by me in unequivocal terms that he wasn't going. He could go at the end of the following season if we didn't go back up again but stay he would, he could have a little pay rise even though we were relegated to the Championship, but he will stay.
"From that point of view I didn't find it a particularly difficult battle. His agent was dropkicked out of the training ground and told to never darken these doors again.
"But in so far as this situation with the player power, I still think communication is part of it. I think the Newcastle hierarchy have got to sit with this player and his agent and not be told they can't because he is their employee and he will do as he is told and he will make himself visible to them.
"And they need to sit down and say to them we don't want you to go, you are not going but if there really is a situation where we have to sell you it will only be on these terms. So get your head around it, get your head into this space that we will only sell you at this price, because it will come down to pounds, shillings and pence. I don't care who the club is, everybody is for sale if the price is met.
"The only way you can change the inevitability of the outcome not being to your best interests is to control the process and tell people very clearly and effectively and succinctly what is the outcome. You will stay if these conditions are not met."
However, Jordan feels there has to be questions asked over why Guimaraes is wanting to join Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali in leaving St James' Park this summer.
"First and foremost, ask yourself the question why are all these players suddenly deserting the sinking ship? " Jordan continued.
"It is not a sinking ship but it doesn't appear to be a particularly ambitious one in terms of an ownership model which everybody thought was going to change the direction of football.
"'Oh my God, we have just been sold to a nation state. One of the richest nation states, look at what they are going do to football'. Well they haven't done anything.
"'They are going to buy everybody. They are going to buy Ronaldo, they are going to have Messi. They are going to have this player, that player,' but they haven't.
"They have bought a bunch of players that to some extent they have managed to make better. And these players are now doing what every player does where they go: 'Ooo, Liverpool. Ooo Arsenal. Ooo Real Madrid,' and that is what Newcastle have found themselves in a position of doing.
"Ask yourself the question that despite the vilification of a player two years ago who said he wanted to stay. Nothing lasts forever, he is entitled to leave, he has done his stint. How he leaves is the key component part of this.
"But also, why. Why are Newcastle now at a place where people want to leave from? That is the problem Eddie Howe has got and that is the problem matey boy [CEO David Hopkinson] who says they are going to win the league by 2030, those are the challenges they have got."