Newcastle will take part in their second pre-season friendly of the summer tonight, with 8,000 Mags travelling north to watch our 7.45pm clash with Rangers.
However, there’ll be no Allan Saint-Maximin; who has not travelled with the squad. As revealed by The Mail’s Craig Hope, he won’t feature against the SPL giants after Saudi Pro League representatives contacted Newcastle over a transfer.
His future is ‘set to be determined in the comings days’, meaning he could still join our US tour if no deal is struck, but it’s looking increasingly likely that the 25-year-old is nearing the exit door. Sky Sports’ Keith Downie has also reported on ASM, stating any move the £40m-rated winger would accelerate our attempts to land Harvey Barnes.
Elsewhere, Eddie Howe will welcome back the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton, Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak, Callum Wilson, Fabian Schar, Sven Botman and Miguel Almiron this evening, with all of the above missing our 3-2 win over Gateshead after returning from extended breaks last Friday.
Four players who will not feature, however, are Nick Pope (finger surgery), Joe Willock (hamstring), Emil Krafth (ACL) and Martin Dubravka (yet to report back). Pope and Willock are making ‘good progress’ and could feature in America, but this one will come too soon.
Jamaal Lascelles (tight muscle), Jacob Murphy (shoulder) and Paul Dummett (limited training) could return after missing the Gateshead win. Either way, we can expect a MUCH stronger starting XI this time out.
The match is available to watch on NUFC TV for £7.99, with a portion of that fee set to be donated to Allan McGregor’s chosen charity ahead of his testimonial.
We don’t help ourselves, do we?
We land a lucrative shirt deal with Sela, who just happen to be owned by PIF, then to invite even more criticism we’re selling Maxi to Al Ahli, a Saudi football team owned by PIF, playing in the Saudi government funded Saudi Pro League.
I know many of you will be rushing for your keyboards to claim there’s no connection, or there’s nothing wrong with it, but let’s be honest here, if City had done the same in the UAE to get around FFP we’d all be screaming about it.
It’s no secret that to reach our full potential and stand a chance at the cups we need a winger that turns up a bit more often than Maxi, and I suspect he was available for sale but nobody came in for him, so essentially we had to buy him ourselves.
The more we move forwards, the more we resemble Chelsea and City.
A bit more subtle perhaps, but just as dodgy all the same.
BykerBill(Quote)