The summer transfer window is where football clubs stage a very specific piece of theatre: insisting a player is beloved, irreplaceable and absolutely staying, right up until the exact moment he isn't. Newcastle's Eddie Howe delivered the opening act on Bruno Guimaraes, his own captain, confirming he'd had "really good conversations" with the Brazilian while pointedly guaranteeing nothing whatsoever.

The backdrop: Arsenal are reportedly lining up a £70m offer, and Newcastle "do not want to lose their talisman" — a phrase that has historically preceded roughly every talisman's departure in the sport. Howe's actual words were a masterclass in saying nothing: the conversations "have to remain private," he "doesn't know what's going to happen," and it's all "for other people to speculate about." A translation is available on request; there isn't one.

Newcastle fans have seen this exact film before, and recently. The comparisons to Liverpool's pursuit of Alexander Isak last summer write themselves — another beloved, irreplaceable Newcastle star who was definitely staying, right up until he pushed to leave. Howe insists there's "nothing to say Bruno won't be back training with us," which is the kind of sentence that ages like an open pint of milk.

The tell is in the squad-building around the drama. Newcastle have already lost Sandro Tonali to Tottenham in a deal worth up to £100m and are busy stitching a new midfield together out of teenagers — Sean Steur from Ajax, Aladji Bamba from Monaco — which is not generally how a club behaves when its captain is definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent staying.

For now Guimaraes is on holiday, recovering from Brazil's last-16 World Cup exit to Norway, and due back Friday to fly to a training camp in Spain. Whether he actually gets on that plane is, by his own manager's account, a question for "other people." In football, "we absolutely love him" and "he's gone by August" have never once been mutually exclusive.