‘He just needed some time’ – Former team-mate backs Tzolis to shine at Arsenal, and highlights a crucial quality the winger possesses | OneFootball

One of new Arsenal signing Christos Tzolis’ former team-mates believes he is better placed to make an immediate impact in the Premier League this time around.

Tzolis’ first spell in the Premier League came with Norwich City when he was just 19 years old.

He was unable to prevent the Canaries from being relegated to the Championship, however, and the Greece international would then spend time out on loan away from Carrow Road at FC Twente and Fortuna Dusseldorf, before making the permanent move to Club Brugge, where his outstanding form earned him a move to the Premier League champions.

Christoph Zimmermann was Tzolis’ team-mate at Norwich and says the circumstances made it difficult for him to deliver on his significant potential at the club.

“If you’re trying to imagine yourself in that situation, 19 years old, away from home, and you’re coming to the best league in the world, there’s probably expectations on you because you’ve been signed just two days before the league starts, probably in the hope to give you a little bit of what you’ve been lacking in pre-season,” Zimmermann, who now works as a coach within Germany’s national team youth set-up, explains.

“So there’s hopes on the shoulders of a 19-year-old. I think he cost around £10 million, so there’s a bit of anticipation for him and going back to when I was 19, I think it would have been really a big ask for me to fulfil that expectation.

“I think he did need some time to settle into English football and I think in that year, we haven’t fully seen his potential. We haven’t fully seen what he’s capable of doing. And he just needed some time to develop. I think probably the spells in between (Norwich and Brugge) did really (help him) make a big step forward to becoming the player that’s now been signed by Arsenal.”

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Zimmermann recalls one game in particular that sticks out in his mind where he could see why Norwich splashed out on the young winger.

“What I remember probably most about that time, that start with him, was actually the cup game at home,” he said. “We played Bournemouth in the League Cup, and him and Sargent played up front. We scored six goals, I think they shared, like, two goals each and assisted for the others.

“So that was sort of the real first impression that still sticks with me that I still have in my mind, which was mainly about his power and his intensity.

“You could see the potential. You could see why we wanted to sign him. But, obviously, it’d be way too easy for me to say you could always see he was going to play for one of the top teams in the Premier League one day. I’m not going there, because I think at the time then, not too many of us would have seen that coming.

“But I think what we always need to take into consideration is the age and the experience and what it all teaches you, all those experiences, living abroad and playing in those leagues.”

Speaking in his first interview with Arsenal after signing for the club, Tzolis also stressed his defensive attributes and work rate, something Zimmermann agrees is a strength of his.

“There are a lot of players, a lot of great wingers out there, but there’s a reason why they went for him,” he said.

“Those qualities that he gives you in possession, he gives you the same without the ball. So he knows he has to run, he knows he has to spin, he knows he has to do his job defensively.”

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