Newcastle United are ready to bid £20million for Nice forward Allan Saint-Maximin, according to the Sun.
The newspaper claimed via their live transfer blog on Thursday night that the Magpies have already seen a £14million bid for the 22-year-old rejected by Nice, but Steve Bruce is now preparing to ramp up the offer by a further £6million.
Bruce has already confirmed that Saint-Maximin is on his radar ahead of the start of next season.
“I don’t think it’s on the verge of happening,” he said, as quoted by the Sun.
“It’s somebody we have looked at, it’s somebody we have identified. We’ll see what happens.”
OPINION
Newcastle are starting to run out of time to get deals done so they need to get a jog on to complete deals like this one for Saint-Maximin. Bruce more than likely has all the money he’s going to have to spend on transfers unless Sean Longstaff ends up leaving for Manchester United, so it’s not like the Magpies have to wait around now and see what’s what before placing bids. Saint-Maximin is a good young player who might be a decent addition to Bruce’s newly-inherited attack in the Premier League. Last season, the France Under-21 international scored six goals and supplied five goals in 36 appearances across all competitions for Nice and can play in a variety of forward positions. He can feature on both wings, up front as a striker or even in a No 10 role. It is important for Newcastle to sign someone like that after losing Ayoze Perez to Leicester earlier this summer and Kenedy is also yet to be replaced since his loan deal from Chelsea expired.
