Leverkusen updates: Rolfes rules out any January sales amid AFCON departures, Xabi comments on shortages
Bayer 04 Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes has, in light of the fact that his squad will lose a projected five actors to the Africa Cup of Nations next month, issued a ban on selling players during the coming January transfer window.
Werkself trainer Xabi Alonso, meanwhile, has commented on the difficult month ahead without Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Nathan Tella (also Nigeria) Odilon Kossounou (Cote d'Ivoire), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), and Amine Adli (Morocco).
League-leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have difficulty maintaining their perch on the top of the Bundesliga table next month due to the loss of up to five players to the coming Africa Cup of Nations. Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Nathan Tella (also Nigeria) Odilon Kossounou (Cote d'Ivoire), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), and Amine Adli (Morocco) are all set to head south to represent their countries at the continental championship.
Werkself trainer Xabi Alonso, meanwhile, has commented on the difficult month ahead without Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Nathan Tella (also Nigeria) Odilon Kossounou (Cote d'Ivoire), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), and Amine Adli (Morocco).
Germany's red company team are known to be on the hunt for a new striker. The temporary departures of center backs Kossounou and Tapsoba will presumably also leave Simon Rolfes and the club's front office seeking additional assistance in central defense. Rolfes - as quoted by German journalist Stephan van Nocks of Kicker Magazine - is on record as saying that sales have been ruled out in the coming month.
One assumes that this transfer veto also applies to want-away German midfielder Nadiem Amiri, who controversially nixed a transfer to Leeds United late last summer. Amiri was dropped from Leverkusen's Europa League squad and has logged just 13 minutes as a substitute in the league. The 27-year-old will obviously wish to leave the club next month. Bayer may also wish to cash in on him rather than lose him on a free next summer.
Despite this, Rolfes has been unequivocal about the fact that no players will be sold without direct replacements being procured. Werskelf trainer Xabi Alonso - who did stress that he held no animosity towards Amiri after the summer transfer fiasco - may have some use for the former German international yet. Alonso himself commented on the personnel shortages at his Friday presser.
"We'll have a competitive team," Alonso noted, "We're losing some players, but have others who can play. We're not closing any doors when it comes to improvement. [In any event] I'm not crying, I'm not a victim."