Newcastle United are now willing to sell winger Allan Saint-Maximin this summer with Steven Gerrard now keen to bring him to Aston Villa.
That’s according to a shock report from the Daily Mail, who claim that Newcastle are prepared to let the Frenchman go at the end of the season.
It’s suggested that, even though Saint-Maximin is a fan favourite at Newcastle, the club are willing to sell for around £50million.
That’s a major profit on the deal Newcastle struck to sign Saint-Maximin from NIce in 2019; £16.5million rising to £20million.
Even with the huge profit, Newcastle fans may not be so keen on the idea of letting Saint-Maximin leave.
The French winger has been a fan favourite ever since arriving, showing blistering pace and flamboyant tricks at every opportunity.
In pure excitement terms, Saint-Maximin is beyond anything Newcastle have had in years – even if you can question his end product.
Aston Villa are claimed to be interested in signing Saint-Maximin with Steven Gerrard seeking big additions at Villa Park this summer.
If Villa come up with a £50milion offer, it sounds like Newcastle will allow a deal to happen before reinvesting the cash into Eddie Howe’s squad.
This kind of move would absolutely divide opinion. Kieran Trippier has called Saint-Maximin ‘magic’ and that’s certainly how a number of Newcastle fans feel too.
With PIF investing heavily in the club, you would assume that Newcastle would want to keep their key players and build around somebody like Saint-Maximin.
To sell such a popular player in the infancy of this new project at Newcastle would be very, very bold.
Yet with two wingers targeted in Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson and Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby, maybe Newcastle want to completely re-tool their wide options.
Selling Saint-Maximin would certainly do that, and quality replacements would absolutely be needed to justify such a move.
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