Lyon manager Peter Bosz admits he was disappointed to lose Bruno Guimaraes to Premier League outfit Newcastle United during the January transfer window, speaking to Voetbal Primeur.
As the dark clouds gather, Guimaraes felt like a little ray of sunshine in a miserable campaign.
Alongside fellow Brazil international Lucas Paqueta, the Rio-born playmaker was going about his business akin to Alan Rickman in Robin Hood’ Prince of Thieves: his scene-chewing brilliance elevating Guimaraes high above the dross and the disappointment all around him.
But with Lyon’s precarious financial situation starting to bite, the Ligue 1 underperformers couldn’t afford to turn down a £33 million offer when Newcastle firmed up their interest in the ‘piano-carrying’ playmaker last week.
“For me, as a coach, he was important on the field and in the dressing room,” sighs Bosz.
The former Ajax and Borussia Dortmund coach ‘understands’ why Lyon had to sell. But that does not make Guimaraes’ departure, with Les Gones 11th in the table and adrift of the Champions League places, any less painful.
Will Bruno Guimaraes help Newcastle survive in the Premier League?
“I understand the club, it’s a lot of money. But I’m the coach, and I loved this player,” Bosz adds, via Foot National.
“So much money. It’s really a lot. I understand the player too.
“We can say that he goes to Newcastle, who play at the bottom of the table. But we all know that in two, three, or four years, they will become a very big club. And he will be part of the history of Newcastle.
“As a coach, he was very important on the pitch but also in the dressing room. He was a winner, and a good guy.”
Guimaraes was the biggest – and most eye-catching – of Newcastle’s five January signings.
He is the deep-lying, all-action playmaker Newcastle have been crying out for since the early days of the Steve Bruce era, a man with the energy and industry of an Isaac Hayden coupled with the guile and class of a super-charged Jonjo Shelvey.
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