Joe Buck brings you the very latest on Allan Saint-Maximin's future. The Frenchman has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli - but should the Magpies sell and what could a sale mean for their future transfer business?
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00:00 Hello, it's Joe Buck here with all the latest Newcastle United transfer news for the Shields
00:05 Gazette. Now this summer so far has been dominated with incomings at Newcastle, you know who's
00:09 going to join, but the man getting all the headlines recently is Alan St-Maximin. Now
00:14 he looks set to depart Newcastle for Sadie Rebien Club, Al Ali, in a deal worth about
00:19 £20 million. Now that might seem low to support, as I think everyone was probably expecting,
00:24 you know north of £30 million certainly for St-Maximin, but that, you know, the £20 million
00:28 fee that's been discussed does include bonuses, or sorry doesn't include bonuses, bonuses
00:33 will be on top of that. So, you know, that fee could rise and it would be a shame to
00:38 see St-Maximin leave as expected. He's been, you know, a shining light for the last four
00:43 years and Newcastle are someone that, you know, everyone loves watching. They're certainly
00:46 one of the most exciting players in the Premier League in total, to be honest, but football,
00:52 life of football, especially in the modern world, players move on and Newcastle fans
00:56 probably have to start getting used to that, you know, some of their players will move
00:58 on. St-Maximin unfortunately just seems to be the casualty right now of being someone
01:04 that they can sell for, you know, £20 million, still not a fee to be sniffed at, that will
01:07 allow them to do a lot in the transfer market, financial fair play, but he's also someone
01:11 who they probably won't miss too much in terms of goals and assist contributions. Obviously
01:15 they'll miss his spark and, you know, his work on the ball, but I think if it was a
01:20 choice between Harvey Barnes, for example, and St-Maximin, it's clear that Harvey Barnes
01:24 is probably the likely option. It would be a shame, you know, St-Maximin's been brilliant
01:28 over the last few years, but unfortunately for him, he does hit that little bit of a
01:32 sweet spot and if a club come calling, they're going to offer, you know, north of £20 million
01:36 and pay his wages, it's something that Newcastle are going to have to consider. We've seen
01:41 their struggles to get rid of some of their other players, you know, on Premier League
01:44 wages who maybe might have to drop down the championship or certainly lower in Premier
01:47 League clubs, probably can't afford to pay, so St-Maximin, with an offer from St-Maximin,
01:51 the club have got to accept it and I think it's one that is probably the right time right
01:55 now. It means they can get some of their other players in, they can get, you know, looked
01:59 at other targets with the fee they're going to get and amortisation means, you know, they'd
02:04 probably do a little bit more business by selling St-Maximin than they would be able
02:07 to alternatively. So, as mentioned, it would be a massive shame to see him leave, but it's
02:11 probably the right decision for Newcastle right now to sell St-Maximin to Ali and, you
02:16 know, he certainly won't be the last Newcastle United player to leave this summer and, you
02:20 know, incomings are expected and outgoings, so it's going to be a busy few weeks at Newcastle
02:26 before the season starts and then once the season starts, the transfer window shuts on
02:30 September 1st, so plenty of transfer news and updates to come and the best way to stay
02:34 up to date with all of that is, of course, with the Shoe-N-Gazette.
02:37 (laughs)