“EDDIE HOWE HAS TURNED WATER INTO WINE HERE – HE’S BRINGING A WINNING MENTALITY TO THE CLUB”
Bruno Guimaraes was on a flight to Quito when his phone began to buzz. It was January 24 and the Brazilian midfielder, having just helped Lyon to a derby win against Saint-Etienne, was convinced that he would be staying in Ligue 1 for the rest of the campaign.
He had headed to Madrid and joined the rest of Brazil’s European-based players on a charter plane to Ecuador, for a round of World Cup qualifiers. It was an 11-hour journey, and Guimaraes passed the time watching TV. Suddenly his phone went crazy. On the other end of the line was Giuliano Bertolucci, one of his agents and the go-to guy for Brazilian footballers wanting a Premier League switch – his clients include David Luiz, Oscar, Willian, Philippe Coutinho and Richarlison.
Even with the winter transfer window drawing to a close, not for a second did it cross Guimaraes’ mind that Bertolucci might be calling with a last-minute offer. “To be honest,” he now tells FourFourTwo, “I wasn’t expecting any bids at that stage, because Lyon had already received some offers for me and rejected all of them – so to see Giuliano phoning me non-stop was a bit of a surprise.”
Bertolucci did his best to get hold of Guimaraes. He tried again. He kept trying, but it was looking
