Newcastle United 'could find themselves with a decision to make' over the future of Allan Saint-Maximin, according to Scott Wilson of The Northern Echo.

The lowdown

The Magpies paid £16.5m to sign the 25-year-old from Nice ahead of the 2019/20 season. He is now only seven short of a century of appearances for the club, having added 37 to his tally last term.

Saint-Maximin, who extended his contract in October 2020, is ostensibly committed to the Magpies until June 2026 (via Transfermarkt).

The latest

Wilson took to Twitter on Friday afternoon to share the 'transfer latest' on Saint-Maximin, stating that Newcastle "could find themselves with a decision to make over Allan Saint-Maximin this summer - amid mounting interest from both Chelsea and Spurs".

In the attached article, he wrote that Newcastle are bracing themselves for formal approaches for Saint-Maximin, floating a potential fee in the region of £40m. Wilson added that such an amount could allow the Magpies to reignite their interest in Bayer Leverkusen's Moussa Diaby and Real Socidead's Alexander Isak, who were deemed prohibitively expensive up to this point.

The verdict

What are the arguments in favour of selling Saint-Maximin?

As Wilson has stated, there's the potential for the fee to be very useful indeed. Beyond that, there are some concerns around the 25-year-old.

For instance, he could be accused of being something of a passenger out of possession, ranking in the bottom six percentiles among positional peers for pressures, tackles, blocks and clearances per 90 minutes (via FBRef).

However, as the journalist also says, Saint-Maximin is 'one of the most exciting wide attacking players in the Premier League', and can be a 'world-class' performer on his day. Indeed, he completed more dribbles (4.3) per game than anybody else in last season's top-flight.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has called him 'absolutely breathtaking' to watch, while no player in the Magpies' squad could match his tally of 10 goal involvements in 2021/22 (five goals, five assists).