Beyond the numbers: Thank you Allan Saint-Maximin.

A data-led look back across at Saint-Maximin's career at Newcastle United.

After four entertainment-filled seasons, Allan Saint-Maximin is leaving Newcastle United to join Al Ahli in a reported £30m transfer.

In doing so he becomes the first major sale of the new era of Ownership at the club and the first from a core group of players who kept us in the Premier League and effectively ensured the completion of the takeover remained possible.

In the bleak wilderness of those last two seasons – when a deal had been agreed upon but not ratified – Maxi was the reason that even the dourest games or run of form were bearable.

A maverick winger that embraced the chaos of Bruceball for the creative freedom it gave him, he was always a reason to hope that we might nick a close game. He was the player that could do something the world of football would talk about. He was the player we could point to and be proud to say: “he’s ours”.

That’s why parting with him hurts so much. He not only saved Bruce’s bacon on numerous occasions, bust saved our sanity with bursts of brilliance. With reminders of what football at it’s most vibrant can be.

So why sell? Well the chaotic environment in which Allan Saint-Maximin thrived under Bruce was replaced by Howe’s ruthlessly efficient that serves the group as a whole rather than a single star. In order for the other ten members of the team to truly thrive, restraints would have to be applied to Maxi’s game: he’d have to become more predictable and release the ball more often. He’d have to follow the coaches instructions.

For a player whose greatest strength was rewriting the script, it was always going to be challenge. Add to this Saint-Maximin’s lack of defensive instincts and you can make some solid footballing reasons for the transfer.

To both of their eternal credit, Maxi and Howe really tried to make the relationship work. Under Howe Maxi worked harder, played for his teammates more and really gave Newcastle a nightmarish counter attacking threat against the superclubs who were happy to let a single man defend him.

Below is Maxi’s first season 🔴 compared with his last 🔵. You can see the areas in which his game improved in the limited game time under Howe. He was adding more end product to his runs, taking more touches in the box, being fouled less and even added 30% to his own pressure values (which were still among the lowest in Europe).

When you openly state that ‘intensity is our identity’ – and that on average a player has the ball somewhere between 60-90 seconds per match – what you do without matters.

When you add the context of our fourth-placed finish – largely achived without Maxi being on the pitch – and the club’s ongoing FFP wrangling, the writing felt on the wall coimg into the summer (at least to me).

But as the Dr Suess quote goes: Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Allan Saint Maximin’s NUFC career in numbers

Since joining the club in 2019, in the Premier League ASM has:

• Played 7,955 minutes

• Scored 12 goals from 168 shots

• Provided 18 Assists from 144 key passes

• Dribbled past 375 players

• Won 204 fouls – but never won a penalty… crazy to think that.

• Completed 3,149 Carries for a total of approximately 26,766 metres

• Progressed the ball into the final third 393 times

• Complete 90 passes into the box from open play

Since 2019 Allan Saint-Maximin attempted more dribbles-per-90 (6.54) than any other player in the Premier League. So many in fact that the tools I use to put the visualisations together can’t plot them on a pitch 😅.

So to give you a flavour of where on the pitch Maxi used to cause havoc, here are all of his 190 successful Dribbles since 2021 🔽

Here’s every single one of his 168 shots, Maxi is bang on his expected goals (xG) across his entire time at Newcastle United – over time xG is so powerful 🔽

Here are the last two seasons of his key passes 🔵 and assists 🔴 mapped out. To my dying breath I’ll remaining convinced that – despite not playing there all that much – Maxi was better on the right wing which simplified the decision-making part of his game and made him a much more effective player.

Finally, here’s the sequence for my favourite Saint-Maximin goal, the only goal that got me a copyright warning on my Twitter account for posting a side-by-side video of this with Ben-Afra’s goal vs. Blackburn 😅

It is, of course, his goal vs. Burnley which was a turning point in our battle against relegation that season.

A fond farewell to a friend.

Regardless of whether I think that it was the right decision from a footballing perspective to move on from Allan Saint-Maximin, his contribution to modern day Newcastle United cannot just be measured in goals and assists.

He was not just a shining light in a pretty dark time for fans, but he’s joins a long list of flair players - Waddle, Gazza, Beardsley, Ginola, Robert, Ben Arfa, et al. – which are as much a part of the heritage of the club as a pint in the Strawberry. It feels like a little part of the romance of supporting Newcastle United Football Club has left with him.

But that’s the point here. Newcastle’s dreams are bigger than any single individual now and other loved players will have to leave to make them a reality. It just hurts that someone we loved so much had to go first.