Huge rumours were swirling around Newcastle United’s social media today that Allan Saint-Maximin was in talks to leave the club and wouldn’t travel to Ibrox.
When it was confirmed that Allan Saint-Maximin didn’t travel with the squad to Scotland for the pre-season game with Rangers that was pretty much all the confirmation most people needed that we could be about to lose the mercurial Frenchman.
Mid-way through tonight’s game with Rangers The Daily Mail ran a story saying Saint-Maximin was in talks with Saudi club, Al-Ahli as was reported heavily on Monday. It seemingly being imperative for FFP that Newcastle move a player on before they can move forward on the Harvey Barnes transfer.
Eddie Howe has confirmed Allan Saint-Maximin could leave Newcastle
Now, after Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Rangers, Eddie Howe confirmed to reporters (via The Chronicle) that Allan Saint-Maximin is indeed in talks to leave Newcastle. He of course didn’t mention a fee and didn’t confirm the club, but he did say confirm that FFP was driving the decision to let him leave.
“Allan is in discussions regarding a move to another club,” said Howe. “Nothing is confirmed, nothing is done. But that’s why he wasn’t here today. With Financial Fair Play you have to trade, for us we were stuck in a position where we could not trade players the other way.
“That’s how FFP works. We understand that. Maxi is a top player and we definitely don’t want to lose him we want to strengthen the group.
“Sometimes these things happen and we have to accept that.
“It’s early to speak of Maxi in the past tense. Certainly our respect for him is the same as the supporters, so if we do lose him it will be a difficult moment for us.”
Saint-Maximin is worshipped in certain parts of the NUFC fanbase
It now looks inevitable that Saint-Maximin has played his last game for Newcastle United. At least he went out with a goal on Saturday against Gateshead.
Saint-Maximin was a divisive figure towards the end with many Newcastle fans worshipping him and others very much at the other end of the spectrum. One thing all fans agree on is that, at one point, he was the best thing about Newcastle United, but as time moved on and the club changed, some quarters of the fanbase think he lagged behind and others think he was left behind.
Whatever the truth, we’ll always remember he got us out of the mire when we were staring relegation in the face and I’m sure even his detractors will wish him luck wherever he ends up.
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