Cologne head coach René Wagner has had a chance to comment on the blockbuster news that Said El Mala will be remaining with his current Bundesliga club. The 38-year-old was, understandably enough, all smiles whilst speaking to a group of assembled reporters after a squad training session. Wagner’s squad appears in much better shape with El Mala on board.
René Wagner’s statements on Said El Mala
“Yes, I heard and I’m naturally thrilled,” Wagner told reporters. “He’s a top player for us. As I said previously, he gave it his all throughout the course of the summer training preparations. It’s simply the case that one has to praise him every day. He elevates the entire team.”
“It wasn’t really a topic for me,” Wagner said when asked if the transfer rumors had affected his work with El Mala. “I just train him and deploy him in the friendlies. [Transfer Politics] isn’t my department. He also didn’t share any of it [the transfer news] with us in training.”
“If I start to think about matters I can’t control, then I’m just making my workday difficult,” Wagner said with regard to transfer rumors in general. “I look after the lads. We have a lot of fun training. If I were to sit at home worrying about what might happen ‘if’, my head would just get squirrelly.”
“That’s why I don’t think about such things,” Wagner concluded. “I just work with the team that Kess [manager Thomas Kessler] gives me. It looks like he [El Mala] won’t be going to BVB and I’m happy about that.”