'Dortmund and Bayern are out of reach for us," admits Leverkusen boss Rudi Völler
"We are still a top club, but Dortmund and especially Bayern are out of reach for us," says Leverkusen boss Rudi Völler.
| Rudi Völler. | Photo: Marco Verch, CC BY-SA 2.0 |
'Die Werkself' haven't won a title since 1993, when they clinched the DFB-Pokal, although they came close to lifting silverware towards the end of the 90s and in the early 2000s.
"Honestly, we should have won titles back then. I regret that we didn't manage to do so. But we are no longer that club today. We are still a top club, but Dortmund and especially Bayern are out of reach for us," Völler said in an interview with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.
"But when we're talking about third to sixth place, we're always in the mix," he added.
Before last week's transfer deadline, Leverkusen brought in Patrik Schick and Lennart Grill on permanent deals from AS Roma and Kaiserslautern respectively.
Additionally, Santiago Arias was signed on loan from Atlético Madrid, but he recently suffered a long-term injury while on international duty with Colombia.
Still, although the departure of Kai Havertz to Chelsea "hurts", Völler insists that Leverkusen possess a "strong squad".
"Transfers like [Kerem] Demirbay, [Nadiem] Amiri, [Exequiel] Palacios, [Edmond] Tapsoba and [Florian] Wirtz were made last summer and in the winter, mainly because we knew that Kai Havertz would probably leave us in the summer of 2020," he said.
