Newcastle United winger Allan Saint-Maximin is being linked with a shock exit – and David Ginola has compared him to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Reports from the Daily Mail over the weekend suggested that Newcastle are now open to selling Saint-Maximin in a surprise development.
Saint-Maximin is Newcastle’s most exciting player, possessing blistering pace and superb trickery to leave Premier League defenders bamboozled.
You would have thought that Newcastle’s exciting new project would prominently feature Saint-Maximin, but that may not be the case.
With Aston Villa keen, Newcastle are allegedly willing to let Saint-Maximin go for a fee in the region of £50million this summer.
This move would absolutely divide opinion; Saint-Maximin is well-liked at Newcastle but for all the magical dribbling, the end product has been inconsistent.
Saint-Maximin is far from Newcastle’s first mercurial French winger, with David Ginola instantly springing to mind.
Ginola was asked about Saint-Maximin when speaking to Sky Sports (03/04, 4:16pm) and suggested that Newcastle need to keep hold of the winger.
Ginola branded Saint-Maximin the ‘jewel in the crown’ at Newcastle in recent times, so why let him leave the club at the start of a new project?
When Ginola was told that Newcastle’s team performance have been improved with Saint-Maximin out of the side, the Frenchman made an interesting comparison.
Ginola suggested that it was the exact same with Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Paris Saint-Germain, focusing so much on one player that when they’re out of the side, it’s more of a team display.
“I’m not sure if Newcastle wants to sell him or he wants to go and find something new, maybe a new project,” said Ginola. “What is interesting is that Newcastle is a new project with the new investors. I think you need to keep on board your best assets. He’s definitely the jewel in the crown for these last two years.”
“If you listen and talk to the fans, Allan Saint-Maximin is the one who gives a little bit of excitement – this is what they want and what they deserve.”
“That’s always the case in Paris when it was Ibrahimovic, everyone was playing around him. When he left the club, the team was playing better football and it’s probably the same [at Newcastle],” he added.
Saint-Maximin may never reach Ibrahimovic’s level, but his importance has been similar in recent years. Maybe Newcastle are ready for a new direction, and Premier League clubs will be queueing up for him this summer.
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