Allan Saint-Maximin the 16th most important Newcastle United player this coming season | OneFootball

We are still waiting for the formal completion of the Allan Saint-Maximin transfer to the Saudi Pro League.

The wait for this deal to be publicly confirmed, isn’t that much of a surprise, as pretty much all of the high profile moves this summer to Al-Ahli and the other clubs have followed a similar path.

Indeed, the likelihood is that Allan Saint-Maximin finds himself now in a queue, with Al-Ahli still yet to finalise and announce Riyad Mahrez. The Saudi club obviously wanting to maximise the impact of these big name signings arriving and spreading them out. So once the Man City star is announced, that is likely to be only when the clock will be able to start ticking on ASM then being formally made public.

Newcastle United are clearly relaxed about the whole thing and I don’t see any possibility of the move not happening, especially when in the meantime NUFC have brought in Harvey Barnes.

Anyway, as we wait for Allan Saint-Maximin to officially leave, I thought I would have a look at where he would have been placed if staying at Newcastle United for the 2023/24 season.

With the squad as it now is, where would ASM have ranked in terms of importance / value.

The idea came to mind after reading / hearing so many debates on whether or not Allan Saint-Maximin should have been sold / kept.

Alexander Isak

Bruno Guimaraes

Nick Pope

Kieran Trippier

Sven Botman

Joelinton

Sandro Tonali

Fabian Schar

Harvey Barnes

Anthony Gordon

Callum Wilson

Miguel Almiron

Dan Burn

Joe Willock

Sean Longstaff

Allan Saint-Maximin

Martin Dubravka

Matt Targett

Elliot Anderson

Jamaal Lascelles

Jacob Murphy

Harrison Ashby

Loris Karius

Emil Krafth

Matt Ritchie

Paul Dummett

Mark Gillespie

Isaac Hayden

Ryan Fraser

Jeff Hendrick

I left out 17 year old Lewis Miley as I think a bit unfair trying to place / value him at such an early stage, one thing for sure though, what a prospect he is looking! I took Jamal Lewis out of the list as he has gone to Watford on loan, Karl Darlow the same as he is set to sign for Leeds.

As you can see, I placed Allan Saint-Maximin at 16th in the current squad of players when it comes to most important for the new season, one place below midfielder Sean Longstaff and one above reserve keeper Martin Dubravka.

I think that if he had stayed, ASM would have made a contribution, but likely off the bench in most cases. Unless a lot of injuries came along, first team starts would have been minimal. The likes of Gordon, Almiron and Barnes all ahead of Allan Saint-Maximin as wingers, whilst last season Eddie Howe also proved very successful when playing the likes of Joelinton and Joe Willock wide left.

Elliot Anderson also impressed ever more when getting a bit more opportunity towards the end of last season, so I’m looking forward to seeing how much he can achieve this season, how many places he could potentially move up this list above.

Allan Saint-Maximin had been an essential for three seasons but in 2022/23 it proved all change after that opening month when he destroyed Man City and scored the wonder goal (his only one of the season…) against Wolves. It is time for ASM to move on and his transfer playing a pivotal part in dealing with FFP and allowing Eddie Howe to land Harvey Barnes and potentially another one or two other new signings to come.