Nathan Tella is currently Bayer Leverkusen’s ‘closest thing to a flop’ as his move from Southampton to Bayer Leverkusen struggles to take off.
That’s according to RAN, who cover the player today in a piece looking at the success enjoyed by Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart so far.
Leverkusen currently sit top of the Bundesliga table after winning 13 of their 16 league games so far and going unbeaten heading into the German winter break.
RAN explain that their success has been built on a strong summer transfer window that saw them refresh the squad to better suit Xabi Alonso and his plans moving forwards.
They spent €80.8m on new signings and Nathan Tella was the most expensive of them, arriving from Southampton in a deal worth €23.3m as the club sought a replacement for Moussa Diaby after he joined Aston Villa.
Except Tella has barely featured for them this season and is now ‘the closest thing to a flop’ when it comes to assessing their summer business.
In the Bundesliga he’s only been on the pitch for more than ten minutes once, and that was in the first game of the season when he managed 18 minutes against Darmstadt.
He’s been a regular in the Europa League but not made ‘a lasting impression’ in any of those appearances either.
RAN do argue that the jump from England to Germany ‘is not an easy one’ and the former Southampton man does have to compete wit quality players in his position that it seems he is not ‘able to compete with’.
Leverkusen aren’t too concerned as the rest of their business has gone so well and they ‘can afford to make a mistake’ as a result.
Their hope is that Tella can take off in the second half of the season, which is more than conceivable given how well Leverkusen have performed up front this season and the work Alonso is doing with his forwards.
For now, though, the move from Southampton hasn’t worked out and he’s as close to a transfer flop as possible.
