There’s no denying that last season was a bit of a strange one for Allan Saint-Maximin at Newcastle United, as the Frenchman went from being the people’s champion both on and off the pitch to a player used sparingly by Eddie Howe.
The winger only started 12 Premier League games for the Magpies, with a total of 25 appearances in the competition, during which he scored the one goal and assisted another five.
This has led to a lot of talk about a possible exit, and Gazzetta dello Sport reckon this could open the door for Newcastle to make a move for Federico Chiesa.
The Juventus star has been touted with a transfer away from the Turin side concretely for the first time in a while, as he has fallen out of favour under Max Allegri, whose formation choices limit the Italian.
Gazzetta explain the player’s agent, Fali Ramadani, has been ‘surveying the Premier League market’ over the past few weeks, with ‘signs of interest’ from both Liverpool and Newcastle looking promising.
Juventus, open to a sale, are ‘waiting for concrete proposals’ for the time being, making it clear to suitors that they have no intention of going ‘below €50m, at least as an initial request’.
The problem at this moment in time is Newcastle, for example, already have a few wide players, and the Italian newspaper reckon they would only seriously come forward for Chiesa ‘in case of important exits’.
Despite being in talks to sign Harvey Barnes, they could also look for a more ‘attacking winger’, especially if the Saint-Maximin ‘were to leave’.
It’s said the Frenchman ‘wants a change of scenery’ and the belief is Italy ‘would be his favourite destination’, with it recalled that he held talks with Milan not too long ago.
However, his wages of €9m/year make any move to Serie A quite difficult to pull off, even with the Growth Decree on the clubs’ side.
That’s why Gazzetta claim that a move to Saudi Arabia could be a ‘solution for him’ as well, thus ‘freeing up a slot’ that Newcastle could fill with the arrival of Federico Chiesa.
