Allan Saint-Maximin has just launched his own board game.
The Newcastle winger has spent two years on the concept of Helios, a card game based on the Greek God of the sun in which you guess suits or gods to gain more powers to use against your opponents.
The limited run of 100 will be followed by an app in the New Year. Nothing should surprise you about a man who gives away £2,000 watches to fans and has an IQ of 145, which borders on genius level, and that Saint-Maximin has his own game will certainly come as no surprise to black-and-white observers who have often noticed him playing by his own rules on Tyneside.
Often it has been to Newcastle’s salvation, with key cameos in last year’s relegation battle saving Steve Bruce’s bacon and paving the way for the Saudi takeover which brings hope to Newcastle.
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Newcastle’s outstanding player, he was dropped for the visit of Manchester City to St James’ Park. That came after a mercurial performance at Anfield: the only Magpies player to trouble Liverpool but undermined by poor decision making.
Callum Wilson’s recent admission in an interview that he didn’t really know when Saint-Maximin would cross the ball hinted at the issue Howe is trying to solve – how to integrate his best player into a system which brings the best out of the team.
Training ground work will help. “One of the ways we work is that we attack with relationships,” said Howe.
“You can’t attack as individuals . That’s not as effective as when you attack together.
“The only way you build those relationships is by repetition of training, attacking with everyone together as a team so you know what you are going to do.
“We have started that work and it is going on every day.
“I have seen some good things in training, probably not as much as we’d want in the matches but that could be down to the teams we have faced.
“In recent games, we have not had a lot of the ball so you are mainly counter-attacking.
“But I am looking forward to seeing that work coming out in the future.
“We have a lot of attacking flair as anyone can see, good individual players who can make a difference.
“It is my job to make those individuals function as a team.”
Against Manchester United, they will need Saint-Maximin to fire. Newcastle’s have lost three in a row, showing defiance in moments but rarely looking like they would trouble Leicester, Liverpool or Manchester City for long.
Ralf Rangnick’s Red Devils showed vulnerabilities against Norwich that Howe will hope to exploit. Unlike his counterpart, whose side may be undercooked, Newcastle have played on while others have fallen victim to the latest wave of Covid.
Saint-Maximin will return and Howe will be hopeful.
“The comments about playing as a team are not aimed at Maxi, it’s aimed at everyone,” he said.
“He’s a huge, huge player for us and the catalyst for many of our good things.
“Look back at the Liverpool game when he played as a striker and was excellent when we were able to give him the ball and utilise his pace.
“And when he came on against City, he had moments when he played a couple of lovely passes through to Callum Wilson.
“But it is all about us as a team to function well enough and give enough stability to then allow him to showcase his talents.
“We’’re still working out the best way to utilise him in all phases of the game.
“We know we have to give him more of the ball in those attacking moments – that is a big structure of our work at the moment.”
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