Jelert prepared to deal with promotion pressure
Elias Jelert believes his experience of high-pressure environments will serve him well as Southampton strive to embark on an immediate return to the Premier League.
The Danish defender has signed on a season-long loan from Galatasaray, where he won the league and cup double last term. The demands in Istanbul are simple: win every game.
The 22-year-old also tasted title-winning success at his first club, Copenhagen, and hopes his experience of fighting for trophies will stand him in good stead in the Championship.
“Obviously it was a big change,” he said of his year in Turkey. “Copenhagen is very structured, a little bit like England I would say, and then you go to Turkey where everything is a little bit more unstructured.
“The fans, the culture, everything is football, so it was nice to try, and I’ve learned a lot from it – especially the pressure when you play in a club like Galatasaray. I think I’m way better at dealing with the pressure now than I was one year ago.
“I have played in two big clubs now – and this is going to be the third big club – where you are supposed to win every game, you are supposed to win titles, go to European football.
“Here the goal is to go to the Premier League, so I love it when you have a goal you have to achieve.”
Jelert revealed he sought advice from former Saints Mario Lemina and Moi Elyounoussi prior to signing, and outlined his ambitions to play regularly to aid his development – regardless of position.
“For me I can play both left and right full-back,” he said. “Obviously I’m right footed, but for me it doesn’t really matter if I play left or right, that’s the decision of the manager.
“That’s a good thing about this place – you have a lot of games in a year, and I hope I can play as much as possible. I’m still young, I will learn, and you learn the most in games, so to play a lot of them will be good for me, I think.
“I’ve played with two guys who have been here, Mario Lemina from Galatasaray and Elyounoussi, who is at Copenhagen now. They both spoke very well about the club and that it’s a good place to develop.”
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