‘I’m not going to lie,’ Saint-Maximin says of his dissatisfaction with his job at Newcastle amid Milan transfer rumors.

When you are in the situation, a lot of teams can see that and think it’s the right opportunity to come and buy the player,” he said after the West Ham game.

“But I’m very proud to be here, and the most important thing for me is to play.

“But when I came back from injury, the team was winning a lot of games, so they have a lot of credit to keep going.

When the team did so well and especially when you love the players you cannot be like, okay when you play you are very nice guys and when you start to not play you just try to [make things difficult], I’m not like that.

Even when I didn’t play, I pray for the team because finally we are together and if we manage to reach the Champions League we’re going to do it together and that’s the most important thing for all of us.”

Saint-Maximin did not hide his excitement at the prospect of helping to deliver Newcastle’s first piece of silverware since 1999, but also insisted that they must first stay focused on Premier League commitments.

“I’m not going to lie, we think about the final, but we are professional.

We know the league is so important, so every game, we try to be focused and win,” he said.

Saint-Maximin will hope to make successive starts when Newcastle take on Bournemouth away from home in the Premier League on Saturday.