Gabby Agbonlahor now says Newcastle simply have to sell £16.5m player this summer

Add as preferred source on Google

TalkSPORT’s Gabby Agbonlahor said his piece on Newcastle United’s proposed transfer of Allan Saint-Maximin to Al-Ahli this morning.

There is no escaping the news right now that Newcastle winger Allan Saint-Maximin is in talks with another club over a summer move.

The enigmatic Frenchman who signed from Nice in 2019 for around £16.5million plus addons, has been seen as having one foot out of the door for a while. Depending on where you get your information that’s because he wanted a move or because Eddie Howe wanted to move him on.

There’s always been a feeling that Eddie Howe and Maxi didn’t see eye-to-eye

Neither player nor manager ever spoke of it in public, obviously, but fans have always had their suspicions that the two don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to on-field activities, although the pair always looked close in front of the cameras, so perhaps there was no issue at all.

We’ll probably never know the truth unless Allan Saint-Maximin decides to do a tell-all interview after he moves, but until then we are left with a divided fanbase. Some of whom are devastated by the thought of Saint-Maximin leaving and others who wonder what took so long.

It seems Gabby Agbonlahor would be in the latter camp if he were a Newcastle fan, saying on TalkSPORT this morning: “100% (the right choice to sell Saint-Maximin),” said Agbonlahor. “Unreliable. He is great on the eye, if you are a neutral and you are watching a game live or on TV, you are going to see someone try tricks when there is no-one around him.

“But when I watched him play, he would get past a couple of players, then make the wrong pass. You need a lot more reliable players – he doesn’t score enough goals for me.

“He is a player you enjoy watching, but if you want to win stuff, then I don’t think he is the man to have in your team.

“Saint-Maximin was kind of like, try a trick for no reason when nobody is around him. You do seven step-overs, then cross it out of play. Maybe you look good on YouTube. You also know that there is a club in Saudi Arabia that will give over the odds for him, so it makes sense.”

Newcastle hope to replace Saint-Maximin with Harvey Barnes

Newcastle look set to replace Saint-Maximin with Harvey Barnes who is nowhere near as fancy or exciting as Maxi but his creative stats destroy those of Saint-Maximin. He might be underwhelming on paper, but if can click for him at Newcastle we can expect to see many more goals next season.

As much as it makes me uneasy, I find myself agreeing with Gabby Agbonlahor. The tricks and flicks were great under Steve Bruce when the football was so dull and the club was so lifeless that his brand of football was what we fans needed just to feel something, but now we’re actually going for titles we need consistency and that’s always been Saint-Maximin’s downfall.

Newcastle must push on this season and it’s going to be extremely difficult to do so, and as hard as it may be to take in, having Allan Saint-Maximin losing the ball or making a wrong decision in the final third nine times out of ten will not help the cause.