https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/transfer-news-live-arsenal-cavani-22752560 "Nottingham Forest and Watford are lining up moves for Newcastle’s Christian Atsu. The winger has only made one appearance for the club this season — a cameo in the Carabao Cup — and hasn’t been included in any of Steve Bruce’s matchday squads. He is now in the final year of his contract at St James’ Park and the club are more than happy for him to go as he doesn’t figure in his manager’s long-term plans. Forest and Watford are both interested and want to lure him to the Championship to join their respective bids for promotion. Atsu, 28, joined Newcastle from Chelsea in 2017 after a successful season on loan in the north-east. The Ghana international had joined the Blues four years earlier but spent most of his time as a Chelsea player going out on loan, including spells with Bournemouth and Everton."
Can't believe he's 28 already. He could make a good left wing back, not sure he's ever played as left-back though.
Haha made me laugh when it said he hadn’t been included in any of Newcastle’s matchday squads but then said he’d made a cameo appearance for them. Made me imagine him just running down onto the pitch from the stands and kicking a ball or two before getting noticed! The bit about Nottingham Forest’s promotion bid make me smile too!
Would be an excellent signing. Has played very well for Newcastle in the past and has plenty of Champo experience.
He is more of a winger than a wing-back so don’t see where he fits. If we change formation then it makes sense.
Seems like this one might actually happen. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/s...su-leave-newcastle-loan---watford-interested/ Talks held with a loan likely to be completed tomorrow, us being favourites.
This is a strange link. Ok, we could well switch formation to play with wingers, which would make sense because it would make better use of Pedro and Sarr. However, Atsu is primarily a left winger and we have Pedro, Sema, Penaranda, Success and possibly Deulofeu for this position. We are very well stocked. So it would suggest to me, we'd use him on the right maybe? I'm not against signing decent players of course, but it makes me think Sarr could actually be going. Meaning we'll be using Atsu in an unfamiliar right wing position. He has also played in the top of a midfield diamond, in the role that Quina or Cleverley takes up. Again, we're already covered there and it would be a secondary position for Atsu anyway. The reports I've seen all say loan, but he's out of contact in the summer. I think it would probably be a permanent deal, or loan with an obligation to buy in July.
Think this could be a good signing. Just hope the recruitment team are joined up with Ivic, in terms of where he will play
Great another winger, I was only saying to myself this morning over my cornflakes we need another winger
More rubbish What an uninspiring window this has been. Troost Ekong the only signing of any real calibre Letting your best players leave and replacing them with crap like Murray, Douglas and Atsu is exactly how you get stuck at this level
Dribbling looks good here, although not many examples of an end product. Mostly came off the bench last year.
I'm normally pretty negative and the Barry Douglas move makes me nauseous. But as depth goes, is this terrible? Sarr and Pedro on the wings with Atsu deputising seems solid enough. He's a good player that has won the title in this league before, at a good age. I'm sure we could do better, but it's vital that Pedro gets minutes, Atsu is a solid rotation option. In 3-5-2 he can cover LWB and CM too.
Supposedly he has also played a fair few games as an attacking CM, in which case he could also be used as a Quina/Dele-Bashiru replacement. I do reckon he could play LWB as well though; Matt Ritchie has even been a LB for Newcastle so why not? Vlad seems to be disappointed at the current attacking output from our wing-backs and so Atsu could give us more going forwards..
Pace, dribbling and aggression, all things we're currently desperately lacking across the various midfield positions. If he hasn't got any serious fitness issues he should be a good acquisition. He almost managed to provide an assist for Joelinton! If he can do that he must be good. Maybe he'll even be capable of assisting Gray as well.
If we plan on using Atsu as a winger, while going 4-3-3, it would most likely be Pedro deputising for Atsu.
Glenn Murray, Atsu and Barry Douglas. Well at least Gino isn't pretending he wants to get promoted this season any more. I was struggling to think of a more ******* useless wide player than Pussetto, but Gino has only gone and found one.
Not exactly what we need in terms of squad depth. Central midfield needs to be addressed and left back. How times changes. From Giannoullis to Barry D. No need for Atsu. Probably Floppo at work undermining the manager again.
Why do you say he could make a good wing back? Newcastle have been playing with wing backs for the last couple of years and it looks like they've only tried him there once. In a cup game against Rochdale.
He's good at bringing the ball forwards from the wide left position. Not completely sure what his stamina is like, but he seems to have the energy to get up and down the pitch. We've rarely had to do much actual defending in wide positions either, yet our wing-backs have often been stuck too deep rather than advancing in to the final third, which Atsu could do.
Because Atsu is likely a more accomplished player than JP at this moment in time. JP has shown flashes of class, and has potential, but he was dreadful yesterday and does not seem ready to be a regular starter yet for a side supposedly serious about getting promoted this season. He should be an impact sub.
Personally I felt Kiko offered quite a bit yesterday going forward and I personally hate seeing his name in the lineup.
Did Atsu play for Newcastle when they won the Championship under Benitez? I’m sure he did but can’t be bothered to look...
