Newcastle United are hopeful of avoiding a fire-sale of the club's best players during the summer transfer window, should they miss out on European football.
The Magpies' hopes of European qualification were dealt a heavy blow at the weekend as opportunity to make up ground on the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Brentford was squandered.
Sunderland's visit to St James' Park culminated in a 2-1 comeback win for the Black Cats, leaving Newcastle to remain in mid-table.
Bruno Guimaraes agent seemingly has say on Manchester United rumours
Captain Bruno Guimaraes played no part in the fixture having recently been sidelined through injury but that hasn't stopped the football transfer rumour mill from linking the out-of-action star with a Premier League move.
According to various transfer aggregators, Guimaraes' representatives had allegedly been in talks with Manchester United over a potential transfer this summer.
Newcastle's response was that this was new information to the club and that to their knowledge no such conversations had taken place, with the Magpies understandably intent on retaining their captain.
Now, it appears Guimaraes' agent has called the reporting into question with the sharing of a cryptic post on social media.
Alexis Malavolta, who helped broker Guimaraes' 2022 transfer from Olympique Lyonnais, posted a single question mark on his official Twitter/X account late on Monday evening.
It has been widely interpreted by Newcastle supporters as confirmation that reports of talks between the Guimaraes camp and Manchester United are false, or at the very least greatly exaggerated.
Guimaraes has grown to become a cult hero on Tyneside, describing himself as an adopted Geordie, playing 189 times in black-and-white. The Brazilian also helped Newcastle to their first domestic trophy in 70 years with their Carabao Cup lift last season and is regarded.
However, failure to secure European football next term understandably calls into question the future of Newcastle's key players, one of whom is Guimaraes.
Considering the club reached the Champions League's last 16 this season, it stands to reason that several members of the squad are capable of competing at a higher level than a team without European qualification, not least their talismanic skipper.
Rumours regarding Newcastle players are expected to punctuate the summer months, but as far as representative Malavolta is concerned, Guimaraes is going nowhere, for the time being - but that could very well change.
