Chelsea outcast, Christian Atsu will head out on loan for the umpteenth time in his unsuccessful stint with the London-based club, with Newcastle United the likely destination.
Sky Sports reports that Newcastle are keen on the Ghanaian winger and want to take him on loan for the season.
Sky Sport’s Keith Downie says that Newcastle enquired about the winger, who has played very little football over the last couple of years.
Over the last two years, he’s been on loan at Everton (13 appearances – 2 assists) Bournemouth (2 appearances – 1 assist) and Malaga (24 appearances – 4 goals) so over the last two seasons he’s played 39 games.
He has been at Chelsea for three years since signing on for them back in the summer of 2013 on a five-year deal for a fee of £3.5M from Porto, but he has never played for the Chelsea first team.
In the 2013-2014 season, he was on loan at SBV Vitesse in Holland and played 30 games with 5 goals and 6 assists.
Atsu has represented Ghana at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and in two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.
He helped his country finish as runners-up in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations when they lost 9-8 on penalties to the Ivory Coast after a 0-0 final score after extra time.
He also was the Player of the Tournament and also scored the Goal of the Tournament – he scored two goals in total, and both were against Guinea in the quarter finals.
The loan deal would probably be with an option to buy, so Rafa could take a look at him before committing to make it a permanent deal next year.
Rafa Benitez is looking to sign a winger before the transfer window closes in the middle of next week and an attempt to sign Brighton’s Anthony Knockaert earlier this month was unsuccessful.
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