Season over prematurely for Bundesliga flop Emmanuel Dennis

Unwanted in Brugge, unconvincing in Cologne, the future does not look so bright for the young Nigerian forward

With two rounds of matches left to play in the German Bundesliga, FC Cologne have decided that Emmanuel Dennis would no longer be part of their plans as the club try to avoid relegation to the lower tier.

Dennis has not been called up to the club’s quarantine training camp, which opened on Wednesday evening.

According to the Geiss Blog, Cologne will stay in isolation at the Schlosshotel in Bensberg until their last home game of the season against FC Schalke 04 but without one of their Nigerian imports.

Youngster Tolu Arokodare is also at the club, and he makes the team despite not scoring a league goal since joining the Billy Goats on loan last season.

But it is Dennis, who was loaned from Club Brugge for 1.2 million euros in January, who has been the bigger flop.

The 23-year-old Nigerian winger-cum-striker left Belgium after falling out with Brugge manager Philippe Clement, but he has failed to convince in Germany.

Dennis had a promising start to life in the Bundesliga, featuring prominently in his new club’s wins against Arminia Bielefeld (3-1) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (1-2).

But he could only manage one assist after his first seven league matches, and the problems began.

And after a silly mistake that saw him lose possession after attempting a dribble in the closing stages with Cologne trailing 2-1 at Union Berlin in mid-March, the Nigerian forward was left out of the squad that faced Borussia Dortmund and FSV Mainz 05.

Dennis was restored to the starting lineup by new boss Friedhelm Funkel in mid-April, but Cologne still fell 3-0 to Bayer Leverkusen.

And the manager may not have been impressed with Dennis as the Super Eagles ace did not get off the bench in the subsequent victories over RB Leipzig (2-1) and FC Augsburg (2-3).

Last Sunday, for the vital game against SC Freiburg, Dennis did not even make the matchday squad.

But it appears Dennis’ time in Cologne is now done with the Nigerian not joining the team in preparing for the final two Bundesliga games of the campaign.

Cologne sit second from the bottom and need to claim the remaining six points to stand any chance of avoiding the drop.