Grading Newcastle United’s summer signing – Christian Atsu

Newcastle United turned former loanee Christian Atsu into a permanent signing from Chelsea this summer.

According to The Guardian, Premier League clubs spent over £1.4bn on new signings in the last summer transfer window.

HITC are using the international break to analyse who has been worth every penny, and who has been a waste of money.

Here we take a closer look at Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu.

The 25-year-old was already accimilatised to life on Tyneside – as much as a Ghanian ever can be – after spending last season on loan with the Magpies from Chelsea.

As The Guardian reports, Newcastle paid £6m to sign Atsu permanently in the summer, and he has gone on to feature more prominently in the top flight than he did in the Championship.

Atsu has already made 10 Premier League starts this season – he started only 15 games throughout Newcastle’s promotion campaign – without being as productive as he could have been.

The speedy wide-man looks dangerous and is the only Newcastle attacker who has the pace and willingness to run at defenders, but his end product leaves a lot to be desired.

Those 10 starts have yielded only one goal, one assist and an average of one key pass per game.

Atsu is good value at £6m, but Newcastle, who have scored just 10 times in 11 league games, need more from him.