Stan Collymore wants Leeds United and Aston Villa to sign Allan Saint-Maximin
Stan Collymore has urged Leeds United and Aston Villa to purse a deal for Newcastle United forward Allan Saint-Maximin.
Saint-Maximin, 24, has lit up St James’ Park over the last few seasons and grabbed a spectacular assist on Sunday to set up Callum Wilson’s opener in the 4-2 defeat to West Ham.
The French forward dazzles with his pace and trickery and Collymore believes Newcastle could be tempted into a sale so they can raise funds to bolster their defence.
“I like Allan Saint-Maximin – he has pace, skills and attitude,” said Collymore in the Mirror’s print edition [August 17, page 55].
“If I were in charge of recruitment at an upwardly mobile club such as West Ham, Everton, Leeds or Aston Villa I’d take a punt on him. Newcastle have done their dough on Joe Willock.
“And, if the second half of their game against West Ham is anything to go by, the Geordies need to stiffen up their defensive unit and maybe therefore be tempted with a cash deal.”
Would he fit?
Saint-Maximin is a very interesting player.
He took his time to get settled at Newcastle but in the last couple of seasons he’s played a massive role in keeping the North-East club in the Premier League.
As Collymore says, he’s got bags of skills and can tear defences apart with his pace. But would he fit in at Leeds?
The Whites have been linked with signing a new wide player before the end of the summer transfer window and while Saint-Maximin has started to play more of a centre-forward role for Steve Bruce, he could still be of use on the wings for Marcelo Bielsa.
He’s versatile, he’s relatively young still at 24, he can score goals and get assists in the Premier League and he’s very fast and skilful.
But he’s also injury-prone and has had spells where he’s gone missing for the Magpies and Biela doesn’t tend to like players who aren’t that consistent.
Then there’s the price of any potential deal.
In May, the Daily Mail reported that it would take an offer of £70million to make Newcastle consider selling the former Saint-Etienne forward.
There’s simply no way we’d be paying that and making Saint-Maximin one of the most expensive players in the history of the game.
For him, something around £25million to £30million seems fair but it’s obvious that Newcastle really don’t want to lose him.
In other Leeds United news, a BT Sport pundit was blown away by what Bielsa did ahead of the Man United defeat.