Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards has said that former City team mate Patrick Viera questioned Allan Saint-Maximin’s “end product” before selling him to Newcastle United..
Viera, who is currently manager at Nice – the club we signed Saint-Maximin from – could end up rueing his mistake for letting the Frenchman go for just a measly £16.5m.
ASM was electric on Saturday night, scoring a superb solo goal and showing a frightening burst of speed before putting it on a plate for Callum Wilson to fire in our second.
Here is what Richards said in the Sky Sports studio after the game:
“I spoke to Vieira about him because he had him at Nice, he said he just was not sure about his end product.“He said he could do all this, take three or four players on but if he wants to get to a top player – that end product is what he showed tonight”
When he first came to Tyneside his end product was lacking and it took him a while to cement himself into Bruce’s starting XI, with a reoccurring hamstring issue often setting him back.
From 2020 onwards, and especially since lockdown, he looks as though he is becoming more efficient in front of goal rather than just being extremely pleasing to watch on the eye.
This has caused him to become a target for Premier League defenders – with the winger on the wrong end of a few nasty lunges against a physical Burnley side.
My only problem, and the management are to blame more than the player himself, is that he is constantly picking the ball up on more or less on the halfway line – giving him the task of running 50-yards with the ball every time.
If Saint-Maximin was playing in a team where he didn’t have to contribute as much defensively, and was collecting the ball in dangerous positions in the final third, he could really make that step up into a top, top Premier League player.
Follow us on Twitter (@NUFCBlogcouk) and on Facebook HERE
