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Allan Saint-Maximin releases personal statement following reaction to his interview comments

2 years ago
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Allan Saint-Maximin has addressed the issues raised by his interview in France.

That interview with ‘So Foot’, saw the French publication release a small number of quotes ahead of publication.

Those quotes producing a negative response from many Newcastle United fans.

So Foot quoted Allan Saint-Maximin as saying:

“Those who have played with me know very well that in terms of pure quality, I have nothing to envy from Sadio Mane.”

“The day when I have a player capable of finishing the actions (assists), I will have seasons with 10-15 assists, and I will change opinions in the people’s heads.”

“Doing things that make an impression, changing the rules, that’s the goal. Like what Michael Jordan managed to do. Jordan, he changed some people’s lives, he gave people work, and that’s the beauty of it.”

Now on Friday morning, ASM has communicated directly with Newcastle United supporters…

Allan Saint-Maximin via his personal Twitter account – 6 May 2022:

“The interview I did with Sofoot has been taken out of context and shortened on Twitter.

“I never said anything negative about my teammates, I simply said as any Newcastle fan would that I was looking forward to having an even better team so that we could progress collectively.

“And that as a result I could also progress individually.”

On Friday morning, Eddie Howe also addressed the Allan Saint-Maximin comments and the reaction they had provoked.

The Newcastle United Head Coach telling journalists that he will be speaking to the first team squad to try and avoid / diminish any ‘fallout’ between other players and Allan Saint-Maximin.

Howe said that ASM had came and spoken to him, insisting it was a case of ‘taken out of context’ with these quotes.

Allan Saint-Maximin stating that the quotes in question haven’t ‘come across in the way that he’d meant them to come over’…

Personally, I think Allan Saint-Maximin is definitely a genuine bloke but maybe a bit like on the pitch, off it he can be a bit erratic, making the ‘occasional’ bad decision.

The trouble is that if a player speaks to any journalist and doesn’t insist on having final copy approval, they are then trusting the journalist / publication itself, to honestly / accurate reflect what they have said.

You would have to be pretty naive to believe that in countries such as France, they don’t have media that are just as morally bankrupt as is the case with much of what we see with UK media.

For me, Allan Saint-Maximin still has more than enough goodwill banked, from his first arrival he got involved with supporting the local food banks and on the pitch he has been our most creative player. Plus, the truth is that despite his up and down contributions, ASM is still easily our player with most end product this season with nine direct goal involvements (scoring five and four assists), the next highest is Callum Wilson with six.

I think that Allan Saint-Maximin simply has to wise up and whilst I am sure he never ever intended any negativity to be produced by this interview, he should have said no to it, which I think is the case when any player isn’t in the best of form, an interview such as this ending up as an extra unnecessary distraction / problem.

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