Gabby Agbonlahor has backed Newcastle United’s call to sell Allan Saint-Maximin this summer by claiming that he is ‘unreliable’ and someone who would ‘maybe look good on YouTube’.
It has been four years since Newcastle paid £17 million for the winger’s talents (Sky Sports), but there is now talk that he could be Saudi Arabia bound.
For Agbonlahor, he doesn’t think Allan Saint-Maximin will be a miss if he is sold because if they want to win then ‘he isn’t the man to be in your team’, as he told talkSPORT Breakfast (19/07/23).
The 26-year-old has all the tricks in the books and he is perhaps one of the most exciting players in the team, but that doesn’t equate to consistency or efficiency.
That’s been his issue. The French star does all the good work outside of the penalty box, but when it comes to making that right call, putting in a great cross, a lovely-weighted pass or finishing off a chance, he doesn’t produce the goods.
That’s why it’s the right call for Eddie Howe and Co. to move on from Saint-Maximin, with Agbonlahor sharing his thoughts on his possible sale.
“100% (the right choice to get rid of 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, the 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 under Howe and PIF
When the new ownership and PIF came in, many probably felt that Saint-Maximin would be the guy that would survive the mass clearout and big changes that were going to be made.
But, in actual fact, someone like Miguel Almiron has survived and performed better than his teammate in this new era.
That’s a credit to Almiron because he has shown Saint-Maximin how to turn things around and how to improve his game after also struggling in recent years.
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