Newcastle United’s Christian Atsu must be kicking himself – despite the coronavirus interrupted season – for rejecting a January move to Celtic such has been his inactivity for the Magpies.
Clearly not fancied by Steve Bruce after having a loan bid accepted, Atsu has featured for just 13 minutes since rejecting the Hoops, hardly an encouragement to stay at the club, even that game time was in the FA Cup against Oxford United.
He has made 22 appearances for Newcastle this season but his total minutes add up to around eight full matches showing how often he is used as a bit part player, he has just four assists to his name which would also suggest that he will be surplus to requirements when the transfer window eventually opens.
The £6.5m signing still has another season on his Toon contract taking him up until the summer of 2021 and he has missed an opportunity to earn a move that would see him regular win trophies and compete in European football should he have done enough to earn a permanent move.
The 28-year-old is said to have rejected the move to Glasgow and also to Blackburn Rovers as he wants to stay and fight for his place with The Express claiming that every aspect of the deal had been agreed and that finances weren’t an issue.
Football fans regularly talk about the “deal that got away” or “what might’ve been” scenarios but on this occasion the only “what if” will be coming from the player himself as Celtic continue to dominate domestic football north of the border.