According to the Shields Gazette’s Miles Starforth, Newcastle United ARE still said to be ‘closing in’ on the signing of Allan Saint-Maximin – despite the fact he’s been included in Nice’s latest pre-season squad.
The Daily Star’s north-east reporter Ian Murtagh claimed this morning that the 22-year-old’s move was ‘close’ after he told teammates he wanted a move to Tyneside, however it’s since emerged that he’s been included in Nice’s squad for their pre-season trip to Cardiff tomorrow.
This came as a surprise given he was left out of their last friendly earlier this week, but the Shields Gazette state that we’ve ‘held talks’ with Nice and are ‘closing in’ on a deal for the £20m-rated winger – suggesting his potential involvement in their game tomorrow is not a sign that the deal has hit trouble.
As Paul Fraser tells us below – the Northern Echo writer who claimed he was set to sign at St James’ yesterday – this could be a bit of gamesmanship from Nice in a bid to speed up the potential deal:
Considering there’s just 13 days left of the window, we can NOT afford to dither on this deal.
Not only would we risk losing out on a player several Newcastle fans are excited by the prospect of signing, we must get our skates on so we can complete one or two other essential deals before the window shuts, with full-backs and another striker also needed.
It’s cheaper to bring him from Cardiff. Let Nice pay the fare
PremAndUp(Quote)
Yeah, works leaving do in Cardiff that’s all ??♂️?
Sharpy17(Quote)