No interest from Everton in renewing Atsu loan

Lyndon Lloyd , 15 May, 20comments | Jump to most recent

(Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Any action that Christian Atsu might see in the last two games of the season would be his last in an Everton jersey with Roberto Martinez unlikely to pursue another loan for the Ghanaian.

Atsu was signed shortly before the start of the campaign on a season-long loan from Chelsea but has made just 13 appearances with the Blues as he has struggled to adapt to the Premier League.

The 23 year-old arrived at Goodison fresh from a season in the Dutch Eredivisie with Vitesse Arnhem but found the step up to England's top flight challenging.

His attempts to break into the Blues' first team were further hampered by the hamstring injury he suffered last November and then his month-long involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana during which he was named player of the tournament.

That accolade, and the accompanying goal of the tournament award he received was not enough to persuade Martinez to give him more opportunities at Goodison Park and the door was effectively closed on Atsu's hopes of regular appearances by the arrival of the more experienced and more consistent Aaron Lennon from Tottenham at the beginning of February.

In comments Martinez recently made to the Liverpool Echo, he didn't explicitly say that he would not be making an approach to take Atsu back for next season but the understanding is that the two parties will go their separate ways at the end of the season.

“Christian is a very, very talented young man,” Martinez said of the winger who hasn't played since the disaster in Kyiv. “Adapting to the Premier League will always take a period; sometimes more, sometimes less.

“He has all the attributes and showed it in flashes at Porto, when he played consistently at Vitesse, when he was named Player of the Tournament at the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana — Christian is very talented.

“For one reason or another, we haven't been able to give him that continuity that you need. But his attitude is terrific and I hope in the last two games, I hope he can finish the season strong with us because his playing time hasn't been as big as we expected.

“But I'm sure the experience will benefit him immensely.”

Reader Comments (20)

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Paul Ellam
1 Posted 15/05/2015 at 17:22:45

I think I speak for a lot of Everton fans when I say "good!"
The lad just didnÂ’t cut it. Get Barcelona on the blower, Bobby, and bring in one of their kids for next season.

Stephen Brown
2 Posted 15/05/2015 at 17:26:12

Forgot he was here! File him alongside Milligan, Thomson, Rehn et al.

Jim Bennings
3 Posted 15/05/2015 at 17:37:19

"But IÂ’m sure the experience will benefit him immensely"???

In what fucking way, Roberto lad??

Sitting on the bench all season and wasting a year here??

He wasnÂ’t good enough, we know that, heÂ’s 23, not that young and heÂ’s unlikely to ever be suited to the English game but why oh why bother?? Another Lacina Traore.

And also how on earth is Atsu "hopefully going to finish the season strongly with us"????

He is not going to feature in the last two, is he?

Kelvin Thomas
5 Posted 15/05/2015 at 17:53:45

No Jim, youÂ’re spot on. Martinez knows this, Atsu knows this and so does every Evertonian. To be fair, you canÂ’t expect RM to come out and say this.

Darryl Ritchie
6 Posted 15/05/2015 at 18:53:46

Martinez will never, ever say anything bad about anyone in the squad, still I have to agree with Stephen @ #2, I forgot he was here.

Christopher Kelly
7 Posted 15/05/2015 at 19:49:13

From the "no shit" department

Tony Cheek
8 Posted 15/05/2015 at 19:57:53

Mourinho must have seen Marinez coming from a long mile....he stitched us up with Lukaku and unbelievably done the same with Atsu. Martinez, gullible......never!

Terry Downes
9 Posted 15/05/2015 at 20:08:44

Tony(8), behave! Stitched us up? IÂ’ve said before that Lukaku is a 20-goal a season striker. Any team between 5th and 13th would love to have him.

We'll get our money back and more so, whereÂ’s the stitch-up?

Ian McDowell
10 Posted 15/05/2015 at 23:05:46

Joins the list of Alcatraz, McGeady, Kone, Traore who we have spent money on only to do sod all. Thank god I watch the football on the foreign TV channels and donÂ’t pay for this! (I Wish)

Phil Sammon
11 Posted 15/05/2015 at 23:37:58

Well thereÂ’s no point in him playing the last two games. LetÂ’s use these matches to give our own youngsters some time.

Mark Andersson
12 Posted 16/05/2015 at 03:34:26

Lukaku has failed to score 20 goals this season Â– just 3 in open play in the Premier League

He will have to improve 100% to make money on him. AinÂ’t going to happen while heÂ’s playing for this useless manager.

Harold Matthews
16 Posted 16/05/2015 at 12:37:48

Mark. I didnÂ’t know those Lukaku stats. Sounds like heÂ’s a worse striker than Jags or Coleman.

Graham Mockford
19 Posted 17/05/2015 at 16:32:26

Harold

because those stats are wrong. 3 goals in open play, total shite.

Patrick Murphy
20 Posted 17/05/2015 at 16:53:17

Lukaku has scored 10 Premier League goals including 2 from the penalty spot, I donÂ’t remember if he has scored direct from a free-kick so that is 80% of his PL goals have come in open play, not enough for a 㿈m guy but hopefully he will - if he is still at Goodison - get more next season.

Winston Williamson
21 Posted 20/05/2015 at 15:41:06

Lukaku has scored twenty goals this season - in all competitions.

HeÂ’s the best striker weÂ’ve had for god-knows how many years. HeÂ’s not Aguero or Costa, I admit, but heÂ’s probably the best scorer we can attract at the moment. I also agree we over-paid for him, but heÂ’s still a quality finisher.

Atsu on the other hand is Premier League gash. HeÂ’ll do well abroad.

Peter Bell
22 Posted 20/05/2015 at 15:51:24

Winston @21: "Lukaku has scored twenty goals this season Â– in all competitions.
He's the best striker we've had for god-knows how many years."

I think we need to put things into perspective here.

He may have netted 20 goals this season but 8 of those were in Europe which we did not compete in the previous season. That leaves 12 goals from domestic football. Take off the two penalties means he scored 10 goals from open play in domestic football as opposed to 16 the previous season.

I am failing to see how he has got better.

Peter Bell
23 Posted 20/05/2015 at 15:56:53

Patrick, cannot believe our posts on exactly the same subject have crossed

Winston Williamson
24 Posted 20/05/2015 at 19:19:30

Peter, I have all the perspective I need thanks. I didnÂ’t say Lukaku had gotten better. I said heÂ’s the best striker weÂ’ve had in years. As you chose to point out.

Breaking his goals tally down is irrelevant really. Has any other striker we have scored more? Has any other player scored more for us?

I stand by what IÂ’ve said. HeÂ’s the best striker weÂ’ve had for years. A couple of seasons ago we had no strikers. WeÂ’ve seen the likes of Beattie, Bent, Johnson, even Felliani upfront and people still moan about having an international striker upfront who has scored 36 goals for us in two season...

Dave Abrahams
25 Posted 20/05/2015 at 19:30:00

Winston (24), going on LukakuÂ’s form THIS season, I wouldnÂ’t say he was any better than Beckford, and how many goals did Beckford score in the one season he was here.

Winston Williamson
26 Posted 21/05/2015 at 11:33:38

Beckford scored 10 goals, Lukaku has 20 goals THIS season. Thus, he has performed doubly better than Beckford did...

There are issues all over Goodison Park on a weekly basis. Singling out a striker who has scored 20 goals in a shite team (this season) seems a little weird to me.

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