ASM so happy for fans after the takeover

ALLAN Saint-Maximin has revealed that he always knew there was a chance of a takeover at Newcastle United after speaking to figures within the club.

Mike Ashley was the club’s owner when Saint-Maximin completed his move from Nice to St James’ Park back in 2019, but the billionaire had no plans to stick around to watch the Frenchman blossom on Tyneside.

Indeed, just a few months later, it emerged that Ashley had agreed to finally sell the club to a wealthy Saudi-backed consortium before the buyers encountered complications with the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test.

The saga hung over the club for the best part of a year and a half before a longstanding piracy row between beIN Sports, the Premier League’s Middle East broadcaster, and Saudi Arabia was finally resolved to pave the way for Newcastle to become the richest club in the world.

Saint-Maximin has longed for Newcastle to show some ambition and the forward has already seen, firsthand, how a takeover can change a club overnight.

“Before coming to Newcastle, I was in Nice and we had a takeover, too, with [Jim] Ratcliffe,” he said.

“When I have some conversations with Newcastle, with the manager and some people at the club, they started to talk a little bit about the possibility of having a takeover.

“I was so happy for the club and for the supporters before being happy myself. For me, it’s only been two years; for the supporters, some of them, it’s been more than 50 years they’ve been supporting the club.”

Arsenal will be without Granit Xhaka for this weekend’s game against Newcastle United.

The Swiss midfielder is still not ready to return to the matchday squad despite making “encouraging steps” in training.

The Gunners were on the receiving end of a 4-0 thrashing at Anfield last weekend and Mikel Arteta could ring the changes against the Magpies. Newcastle are still without a win from their opening 12 games of the Premier League season and are rock bottom of the division.

Last time out was an encouraging performance against Brentford, but the Magpies can ill-afford another weekend where their rivals move away from the relegation zone.

Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all expected to retain their places in Arteta’s XI.