Nathan Tella’s footballing journey started in Stevenage, in London’s northern commuter belt, before he came to the attention of Arsenal who added him to their academy when he was eight. After a decade with the north London side he joined Saints following brief trials at Reading and Norwich. Southampton’s manager at the time, Ralph Hasenhuttl said “he likes to hunt and I am sure will play a bigger role in the future”. Ostensibly Nathan was a right-sided attacker although in his early days he often played as a right or left-back. His direct running and willingness to press came to the attention of Vincent Kompany who in the summer of 2022 had taken charge at recently-relegated Burnley and the ex-Manchester City defender persuaded Saints to let him take Tella to Turf Moor as he looked to build a team to bounce straight back to the Premier League.

What happened next was something of a revelation as not only did the Clarets storm back to the top flight but they did so with Tella scoring a hatful of goals including two hat-tricks. His form meant he was named in the PFA Team of the Year and Burnley fans clamoured for their club to sign him on permanently. Southampton, meanwhile had headed in the opposite direction from Burnley and their fans were anxious to hold onto the player in the expectation he could do the same job he had done in Lancashire. In the end neither set of fans got their wish as Nathan’s next destination turned out to be Germany after the Saints board accepted a £20m transfer fee from Bayer Leverkusen.