Newcastle United have Bayer Leverkusen to overcome this week in the Champions League, but there’s a far more tantalising fixture sticking out across the busy December period.
The Premier League’s first Tyne-Wear showdown since 2016 arrives on the calendar next weekend, with Sunderland’s electric start out of the blocks in the top-flight this season no doubt ramping up the nerves on the end of the Magpies.
Eddie Howe will also be fearful of a loss when you consider Newcastle have lost their last four meetings in this tense rivalry, with Leverkusen in midweek the perfect opportunity to collect a confidence-boosting victory, before facing off against Regis Le Bris’ tricky Black Cats.
In particular, Howe will hope he sees a lot more from the likes of Yoane Wissa and Anthony Elanga at the BayArena, with both high-profile summer recruits failing to settle so far on Tyneside.
The numbers behind Wissa & Elanga at Newcastle
£250m in total was forked out on summer signings at St James’ Park, with £110m of that excessive spending landing both Wissa and Elanga.
There was a method behind Newcastle’s madness here, with the former Brentford man and the Swedish winger amassing a stunning 41 goal contributions between them last season in the Premier League.
Unfortunately for the £55m striker, though, he has only lined up for a paltry 16 minutes in Toon black and white so far, with his first appearance for the club coming last time out against Burnley, 96 days on from him signing on the dotted line.
He is far from a lost cause, however, with a hope he can add to his 45 Premier League goals shortly with sustained time in the first team, as he potentially prepares to start versus Leverkusen. If he doesn’t get up and running soon, with his hefty £140k-per-week salary also added to the equation, he will definitely be dismissed as a rash waste of money.
Elanga doesn’t have a troubling injury record to fall back on when it comes to his critics, with just two assists and no goals next to his name from 22 appearances on Tyneside, making his £55m price tag already feel extremely extortionate.
Still, there will also be a hope in the air that the £100k-per-week forward is simply a work in progress, having previously shone with Nottingham Forest, away from negative labels coming his way that he is a “massive overpay” in the words of Raj Chohan.
Staggeringly, despite £110m being dropped on the underwhelming duo in question, they’re not deemed as big a waste of money as this other high earner, who Howe must now swiftly axe ahead of key games to come in December.
Howe must now drop £120k-per-week Newcastle man
At least with Wissa and Elanga, Howe and Co would have known they were paying a premium price for talents who were consistent top performers in the Premier League.
In the case of Jacob Ramsey, though, £43m was forked out on a star who had a rollercoaster stay at Aston Villa, having only collected a mediocre eight goal contributions across his final two top-flight seasons in the West Midlands, leading to him falling out of Unai Emery’s first team plans.
Ramsey’s flashes of brilliance at his hometown club did see journalist Charles Watts once herald him as a “special” talent for the future, but eyebrows would have been rightly raised when the £43m move was finalised, with his £120k-per-week wage also making him an immediate higher earner than St James Park stalwarts such as Dan Burn, who pockets £70k-per-week, on the contrary.
In the here and now, too, it feels like an awfully long time ago since the 24-year-old was generating lots of hype at Villa Park, with a rare first-team start against Burnley last time out seeing Ramsey look rather timid.
|
Ramsey’s numbers vs Burnley |
|
|---|---|
|
Stat |
Ramsey |
|
Minutes played |
90 |
|
Goals scored |
0 |
|
Assists |
0 |
|
Touches |
73 |
|
Shots |
1 |
|
Accurate passes |
56/60 (93%) |
|
Accurate crosses |
0/1 |
|
Key passes |
1 |
|
Successful dribbles |
1/2 |
|
Penalties given away |
1 |
|
Stats by Sofascore |
|
Indeed, it doesn’t make for pretty reading on Ramsey’s end, with the 24-year-old’s general game going down as largely uneventful, until he gave away an unnecessary penalty via a handball, with only one shot, one key pass, and one accurate dribble registered.
With no goals or assists next to his name from 11 clashes, it isn’t the wildest shout to suggest he’s a bigger waste of money than both Wissa and Elanga, with Wissa needing more time to acclimatise, while Elanga at least has two assists to cling onto and showed what a dangerous talent he can be last season..
Moreover, with both Joe Willock and Lewis Miley also at Howe’s disposal in midfield in the reserve ranks, there doesn’t seem to be a long-standing space for the ex-Villa man in his starting XI, as the forgettable number 41 likely just turns into an expensive background figure that can’t be redeemed.
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