Xabi Alonso left Bayer Leverkusen in the best condition: 2023/24 Bundesliga title, DFB Cup champion, plus the 2024 Super Cup, which is more than the club has ever won before. With Alonso, key players such as Jonathan Tah, Granit Xhaka, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz disappeared. The latter gave the club a whopping 125 million euros. 92 million euros of the proceeds were directly spent on a trio of attacking players. This has turned out to be an unprofitable use of Wirtz’s income.
Because where Wirtz wreaked havoc with defenders in the Bundesliga, last season with 16 goals and 15 assists in 45 games, the trio still have a few rounds left of the season to convince, and have had to endure time on the bench.
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In Saturday’s 2-1 win over 1st FC Köln in the Rhein Derby, Bayer Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand again used his trio – Malik Tillman, Equi Fernandez and Eliesse Ben Seghir – late in the second half. The club paid a total of 92 million euros for the trio last summer. None of the players cost less than 25 million euros, no one has impressed.
Bayer’s management repeatedly emphasizes that they will be patient with the new players in the newly appointed squad under the second coach of the season (first Ten Hag, then Hjulmann). This clearly does not apply to the player with the highest transfer fee, considered the “star signing” before the season started: Malik Tillman.
Bayer have never before spent more than the 35 million euros paid to PSV Eindhoven for the signing of the American international. With several key players to replace, the club’s management focused on signing young, developmental talents. Nevertheless, their haste and large revenues after the Wirtz sale were obvious to any selling club, so Leverkusen often found themselves in a weak negotiating position.
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This is how the 35 million euro deal for Malik Tillman came about. He had won the league title twice with PSV during his two years in the Netherlands and had scored an impressive 16 goals in 34 games last season.
And the debut season at Leverkusen? Here is the number 41. That is the total number of minutes he has spent on the pitch for Bayer in the last four Bundesliga games. Leverkusen had expected far more from the attacking midfielder (so far 8 goals on 1 assist in 39 games), who was labelled by the media as Wirtz’s replacement during the summer.
According to Bild , the American is “emotionally distant” and has already discussed his concerns with Bayer’s sporting director, Simon Rolfes. He is considering a quick exit despite having a contract with Leverkusen until 2030. His decision also depends on whether Bayer – who are currently outside the Champions League places – keep coach Hjulmand for next season.
