Newcastle United journalist John Gibson has given his thoughts on when Bruno Guimarães will get his first start for the club.
The Brazilian was brought in by Newcastle United late in the transfer window, and as a result of that, his first few weeks haven’t been all that straightforward. International duty meant that his true arrival at the club was delayed, and even then he has been waiting for his first start under Eddie Howe, making cameo appearances in the Premier League so far for a grand total of four minutes playing time.
So they aren’t exactly getting the most use out of a man that they reportedly paid £40m for. However, given the good form that they’re in, it’s not as if they’ve really needed him in the past few weeks.
This is why Gibson, speaking on NUFC Matters, doesn’t think that he will start a game until after the club lose their next game, which he predicts will come after their game against Chelsea in March.
He said: “I don’t think you can start with Bruno [against Brentford]. I’ll tell you when they’ll start with Bruno, they’ll start with Bruno when we lose a match, and that might be 1-0 at Chelsea away, then Bruno will start the next game. So I’m forecasting that Bruno’s first debut will be the game after Chelsea.”
TIF Thoughts on John Gibson’s comments on Bruno Guimarães at Newcastle United…
Do you think Bruno Guimaraes will start on Saturday?
Yes
No
If Gibson’s prediction turns out to be correct, that would make Guimaraes’ first start their game against Everton on 17th March.
Whilst you can understand Newcastle and Eddie Howe going with the ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra, it does seem incredibly strange the way that they are handling this situation, especially considering how much they paid for him and the reputation that he came to the club with.
You just have to hope that this is being handled well behind the scenes and isn’t having any long-lasting effects on the player both physically, because of a lack of true game time for when he does eventually start, and mentally in terms of being left on the bench for the majority of play.
Otherwise this plan could ultimately backfire when it comes to playing him from the offset, whenever that might be.
In other news: ‘It’s a good thing’ – Steve Wraith reacts to big news coming out of Newcastle