WITH his beaming smile and affable, outgoing nature, it can be hard to tell what Bruno Guimaraes is really thinking sometimes. Can anyone be that happy all the time?

Well, watching the Brazilian sit alongside Eddie Howe at Newcastle United’s new-look media centre at their Darsley Park training complex earlier this week, previewing the Sela Weekender, the sense of satisfaction and contentment certainly didn’t look fake.

If Guimaraes is restless on Tyneside, or agitating for a move away, he is doing a remarkable job of hiding it. So, while there will always be fears of one of Europe’s biggest clubs making a move for the 26-year-old, despite the £100m release clause in his contract having lapsed, Newcastle supporters can content themselves with the knowledge that, for the foreseeable future at least, their side’s star midfielder is here to stay.

“I am always here,” said Guimaraes, whose English has improved dramatically since his first signed from Lyon in January 2022. “I have never said that I would like to leave. Since I signed for the club, I have always been saying that I want to put my name in the club’s history. Nothing has changed for me. I still want to win trophies here at Newcastle.

“When I signed for the club, I said I wanted to play in the Champions League and everyone said I was crazy. But we got it. Now, I want to be back in the Champions League again and want to win something for the club. I think the fans deserve it, and we have worked so hard to get it. This is still my dream.”

Indeed, if anything, Guimaraes has become even more integrally intertwined into Newcastle’s fabric this summer, despite the speculation linking him with a possible move away.

With Matt Ritchie having left as a free agent, there was a gap on Newcastle’s leadership group that needed filling. Jamaal Lascelles is club captain, but is currently injured. Kieran Trippier tends to stand in for Lascelles, but continues to be heavily linked with an exit from Tyneside, having entered the final year of his current deal. Callum Wilson and Dan Burn are also part of Newcastle’s senior leadership team.

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Guimaraes is too now, having been selected by a combination of Eddie Howe and the members of Newcastle’s first-team squad. He is the first overseas player to have been given the honour, and regards it as an important step in his ongoing development on Tyneside.

“It is a big challenge for me,” he said. “My first language is not English, so to express myself is always a little bit more difficult. For me, being a leader is not about who is wearing the armband. It is the player who is speaking, who is always training well and who is fighting for the club with everything.

“Last season, I only missed one game. There are many, many ways to be a leader, and I want to help the club and my team-mates in the best way possible.

“I am really excited to become a leader here. Since I was young in Brazil, when I was 19 years old, I was made a captain at Athletico Paranaense. I have been captain in Brazil (youth) sides and I was captain at Lyon as well. Why not here? Why not try to deliver myself and be the best Bruno here? I cannot wait to start the season.”

That new season will look markedly different to the last one. Newcastle were caught in a whirlwind last term, thrust into the Champions League and handed a playing schedule that would have tested the deepest of squads, while simultaneously trying to deal with an injury crisis that meant they were regularly deprived of more than a dozen senior players.

In the end, maintaining a European challenge to the final day of the season was a remarkable achievement, but things should be different this time around. With no European football to pack out the calendar, there will be much more time for training between games. Assuming the injury situation is not as chronic, Newcastle should be much better placed to focus on the Premier League and stage a renewed assault on the top four.

“With just playing in the Premier League, we are going to have more time for training,” said Guimaraes, who played a barely-believable 65 matches last season for club and country. “We are going to have more recovery time in a long season.

“If you look at December, then we play nine games in a month. That means you need a deep squad. We were without key players in that period last year, but this season, we should have more time for training. I want to be back in the Champions League. I think not playing European football will give us more time for training, and a chance to focus just on the Premier League to get the club back into the Champions League.”