Armel Bella-Kotchap was allegedly hot property when Southampton spent £8.6m to bring him to St Mary’s, and when he won his first international cap for Germany against England, a few weeks later, that was looked upon as proof his career was about to take off. He did initially enjoy a fair bit of Premier League game time, in his first season, but injuries never seemed far away and there were questions about his attitude. He was a ruggedly built central defender who looked capable of holding his own against any burly striker but then he would lack focus and determination.

Ralph Hasenhuttl was in charge when he arrived, but a succession of future managers seemed unimpressed with his committment and after spending 2023-24 on loan in Dutch football a move to Hoffenheim appeared to be on the cards, but he failed a medical. He had a couple of starts under Ivan Juric during 2024-25, but new manager, Will Still seemed unimpressed and was quite happy to let him go out on loan again, this time to Italy.