Harvey Barnes may have been present on the sidelines to watch Leicester City's pre-season game against Peterborough on Tuesday, but the Foxes decision to 'rest' the Newcastle United target was telling. It felt like a timely reminder of how resigned Leicester are to losing the winger as they protected their prized asset.
A hundred-and-eighty-three miles up the road, Allan Saint-Maximin offered a timely reminder of his own with a trademark individual goal at Newcastle's training ground. However, it was the words Saint-Maximin captioned the short clip with that were most striking.
"People can keep talking when they know nothing," he posted "I just keep working."
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Those words were written amid growing speculation about Saint-Maximin's own future. The player, himself, loves the club, the city and the fans while Eddie Howe would ideally like to keep the Frenchman, but does Newcastle's pursuit of Barnes, who is a very different sort of winger, tell its own story? And could Newcastle afford the luxury of having potentially six players who can play on the left-hand side if the Magpies end up signing Barnes?
Yes, Newcastle overtook Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea on the field last season, but the club's revenues pale in comparison. Chelsea, for instance, have been able to generate around £200m in player sales so far this summer at a time when Newcastle are still paying the sizable wages of Ryan Fraser, Jeff Hendrick, Isaac Hayden and others who will never kick a ball for the club again. In other words, Newcastle are still paying the price for substantial contracts handed out in the Ashley era at a time when the black-and-whites need to reduce their wage-to-turnover ratio.
It leaves Newcastle with few realistic options to bring in serious funds to further boost the transfer pot following the £55m signing of Sandro Tonali earlier this month and the club simply have to become better traders. After all, the £15m Newcastle received from Nottingham Forest for Chris Wood was the first time Newcastle raised an eight-figure fee for a player since Ayoze Perez joined Leicester City four years ago.
Howe did not want to lose Wood or Jonjo Shelvey, for that matter, who were key leaders in the dressing room, but those sales ultimately proved smart pieces of business. The gamble, in other words, paid off.
However, could Newcastle really afford to do the same with Saint-Maximin? Yes, Saint-Maximin may have only made a dozen league starts last season, but the mercurial forward is one of the best dribblers around and that X-Factor will be so important when Newcastle come up against sides who sit off, particularly at St James' Park, as the Magpies battle on four fronts.
No one needs reminding of what Saint-Maximin is capable of, either. Saint-Maximin started last season impressively, following up, arguably, his finest performance yet against Man City with a stunning equaliser a week later at Wolves, before the Frenchman suffered a hamstring injury. When Saint-Maximin was approaching those levels again back in April, with back-to-back assists against Manchester United and West Ham, the former Nice star was hit by another hamstring issue.
Those niggles were all the more frustrating for Saint-Maximin after the forward played in 35 of Newcastle's 38 top-flight fixtures the season before which was, by far, his best ever return since joining the club. As well as staying fit, for the most part, Saint-Maximin was also directly involved in 10 goals during that campaign which, again, were his finest numbers in a Newcastle shirt.
Yet Newcastle's subsequent evolution into a well-oiled, high intensity machine has seen the Magpies' reliance on Saint-Maximin ease a little and the profile of the club's starting wingers has changed given the responsibilities they now have on and off the ball. In contrast, when Newcastle were battling relegation Saint-Maximin was 'the saviour' as former team-mate Dwight Gayle deadpanned and the 26-year-old relished being the main man - even if he had long tired of those six-pointers at the bottom end of the table.
However, now that Newcastle have achieved his dream of qualifying for the Champions League, Saint-Maximin's place in the side is not assured. As Howe said, himself, in his final post-match press conference of last season, Saint-Maximin's role going forward will be 'dictated' by the player himself.
"He has so much ability," the Newcastle boss told reporters. "He is such an important player for us. When he is at his very best fitness wise, he is unique. There's no one like him in the Premier League. He's a huge transitional threat. His end product was there. We just hope he comes back really fit and ready to do well in what is a massive season for him personally."
Massive is right. In so many ways.
