How is Nathan Tella getting on since leaving Southampton for Bayer Leverkusen? | OneFootball

Nathan Tella endured an excellent 2022/23 campaign on loan at Burnley.

His minutes at Southampton were going to be limited, so he linked up with Vincent Kompany ahead of their first campaign back in the Championship.

There was a lot of pressure on them to get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking considering the quality of their squad, something that could have led them to collapse and fall below expectations.

However, they managed to go on and win the title, establishing themselves as the best team in the second tier by some distance last term and managing to cope even when Jay Rodriguez was unavailable.

A major reason why they managed to cope was because of Nathan Tella, who was a consistent goalscorer for the Clarets during his time at Turf Moor, registering 19 goals in all competitions for the Lancashire outfit with 17 of those coming in the league.

With this record, he managed to do more than enough to put himself in the shop window ahead of the recent summer transfer window.

With Tella having two years left on his contract at St Mary's in the summer and the club cashing in on the likes of Tino Livramento, James Ward-Prowse and Romeo Lavia, you felt the Saints had a real chance to retain the former Burnley loanee.

And he made an excellent start to the 2023/24 campaign for the south-coast side, managing to translate his form from Turf Moor to the south coast.

On the opening night of the season, his shot took a deflection off Adam Armstrong and ended up in the back of Sheffield Wednesday's net, allowing the Saints to take the lead at Hillsborough.

before sealing a £20m move to Bayer Leverkusen during the latter stages of last month.

Tella's current side needed extra quality in the final third following their sale of Moussa Diaby to Aston Villa - and Tella could be the man to make a real difference for the Bundesliga outfit.

Leverkusen have made an excellent start to the season even without Diaby, sitting second in the table behind Bayern Munich after registering four wins and one draw in their opening five league matches of the season and also managing to get through to the DFB-Pokal second round.

Unfortunately for Tella, he hasn't been able to record a goal or an assist in any of his three appearances so far.

Coming off the bench in both of his league appearances, he started against BK Hacken in the Europa League but was hooked on the hour mark.

He will be disappointed about that, as well as the fact he didn't make an appearance off the bench against Bayern Munich, remaining an unused substitute.

Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that he hasn't made an immediate impact because he will need time to adapt to a new country and a new language.

But it may only be a matter of time before he gets himself on the scoresheet, with Tella potentially having an opportunity to shine against Mainz on Saturday.