Player ‘lagging behind expectations’ after summer Southampton exit – Labelled a flop, perhaps unfairly

In 44 appearances, Nathan Tella only managed three goals and six assists for

Southampton, but Bayer Leverkusen was persuaded to pay €23 million for him in the summer.

will have been related to his 2022–2023 season-long loan at Burnley, when he played 45 games and scored 19 goals while providing an assist. However, the 24-year-old probably didn’t want what came next.

Objective Following his departure from Southampton, Germany ranks the winger

last among the Bundesliga’s busts from the first half of the season.

Although Tella arrived at a team that is presently leading the German league and is very much set in its ways under Xabi Alonso, it could be seen rather harsh, as more was expected of him.

In the Europa League, where he has started every game for his side and has scored one goal and assisted another in

six appearances, he has been given more opportunities, but in the league, he has

not even been in the top half of the team sheet.

Although they acknowledge that the player is “lagging behind expectations” given his transfer fee, they also note that

he has time to “get off to a flying start” in the near future.