Steve Bruce’s assistant Stephen Clemence has given Allan Saint-Maximin high praise after claiming that he and Jack Grealish are the ‘best two things I’ve ever seen on a training pitch’.
It’s fair to say that the Frenchman enjoyed his best run of form under the ex-Toon boss – one of the only positives of his reign – but has struggled with injuries and consistency since Eddie Howe came in.
One of the winger’s biggest criticisms is his lack of end product, but Clemence believes that ‘there’s no doubt’ about his abilities in the final third. Instead, our former assistant has suggested that the reason for his limited impact is because teams have started to ‘double and triple up on him’ to contain the 26-year-old.
Despite rumours that he was a bad egg in the squad, Clemence added that he was a ‘nice lad’ and ‘quite laid back.’ He admitted that he ‘used to annoy some of the lads’ when he was late, but that wasn’t due to a night out drinking, just poor time keeping after dropping his kids off at school.
Here’s what Clemence had to say on the former Nice winger:
“Jack Grealish and Allan Saint-Maximin are the best two things I’ve ever seen on a training pitch.
“Allan can do things at speed with a football which you just don’t think are even possible. He cuts inside, he has got end product, there’s no doubt about that.
“The problem he’s found is that people know what he’s going to do more now and people are doubling up, tripling up on him but he can go past people so, so easily.
“He’s a nice lad as well, quite laid-back. Sometimes he used to annoy some of the lads as he turned up a little bit late. But he wasn’t out drinking at night.
“He’d be late because he’d be taking his kids to school. I can’t say I taught him too much because he’s just a natural talent.”
