- Newcastle stars in passionate argument on pitch against West Ham
- Guimaraes and Willock make up after spat
- Newcastle fans get flashbacks of Bowyer and Dyer
Whilst Sunday was a positive one all round for Newcastle United in their 3-1 win over West Ham, there was a rather unsavoury moment near the end of the game.
Bruno Guimaraes and Joe Willock were involved in a bit of a spat following a failed attack, which caught the attention of fans.
Joe Willock came on as a substitute and made a strong impact with an assist in a lovely link-up to set up William Osula‘s second goal of the game. Guimarães started the game and put in a top performance, further cementing himself as Newcastle’s best player this season.
The two have since made up publicly in the comments section of Joe Willock’s social media post. With a nice little interaction showing that there were no hard feelings.
Guimaraes and Willock argue on the pitch
The situation will have given many Newcastle fans some unwanted PTSD from the Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer situation, which saw the two come to blows and receive red cards.
Willock made a run down the left-hand side and beat a man before choosing to take a strike on goal, which was ultimately blocked by the West Ham defence.
Guimaraes had been screaming for the ball in the centre of the box, and Willock perhaps should have looked to slip the ball into his captain. Bruno clearly felt the same way and immediately had a go at his teammate for not finding him.
It’s safe to say Willock wasn’t particularly enamoured with being called out by his captain, and the two exchanged some choice words. Dan Burn and Jacob Ramsey diffused the situation, but the two clearly still weren’t happy.
This led to a lot of social media speculation among fans that there was more to the disagreement than met the eye.
Many cited it as a spilling over of the reported behind-the-scenes tensions that are said to have plagued the Magpies this season.
Newcastle teammates make up on social media
Despite the fans’ concerns, the two showed there were no hard feelings on Willock’s post-game Instagram post.
Bruno took to the comments, writing, “Friends again; great assist, Willockinho.”
Willock would later reply to the Brazilian, posting “My captain” followed by a love heart emoji.
The wholesome exchange put to bed any unrest and concern among the supporters that it was a sign of disruption and positioned it as a product of competitiveness.
And, in fact, the moment showed more fight and passion than has been the case for the rest of the squad for most of the campaign.
