Bayer Leverkusen are ‘not panicking’ over the signing of Nathan Tella from Southampton this summer, despite him not yet making much of an impact at the club.
That’s according to Fussball Transfers, who carry quotes from Leverkusen director Simon Rolfes on the player’s struggles.
Tella joined Leverkusen in a €23.3m deal from Southampton in the summer as the German side paid big to continue improving Xabi Alonso’s squad.
He was brought in as a replacement for Moussa Diaby, who had left for Aston Villa earlier in the summer and left a big hole that needed to be filled.
Indeed, he’s barely featured in the Bundesliga to date, participating in just 7% of the available minutes in the league, not the kind of numbers expected given the money paid to sign him from Southampton.
Fussball Transfers, though, insist the club are ‘not panicking’ just yet despite a ‘slow start’ for the winger.
They say the former Southampton man has suffered from a clear ‘disadvantage’ in that his preference to dribble with the ball goes against the possession style of play adopted by Alonso.
The belief is that Tella needs time to adjust and work out how he fits in, something Rolfes has echoed.
“All players who came to us later have this problem,” he said. “So far we have been very dominant, but we will still need these facets this season.”
