Southampton gem pictured training with forgotten man and £26m summer target reached
Footballers not on international duty this summer will be working hard to ensure they are ready for the beginning of their respective pre-seasons in a matter of weeks.
Gone are the days where players would report for pre-season training carrying a few extra pounds and short of fitness, with most footballers working as hard in the off-season as they do during it such is the level of professionalism in the modern game.
Southampton only confirmed their place in the Premier League via the play-off final win over Leeds United less than a month ago, but there has been little time to rest ahead of what will be a difficult campaign.
Former Saint Nathan Tella has taken to Instagram to show how hard he is working as he prepares for a second season at Bayer Leverkusen, but it is the players that he is training with which will be of interest to Southampton fans.
Nathan Tella training with Armel Bella-Kotchap and Danny Ings
Tella’s decision to leave Southampton for German side Bayer Leverkusen last summer paid off emphatically as the club managed by Xavi Alonso won both the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal.
Leverkusen lost just one game all season, with that 3-0 defeat coming at the hands of Atalanta in the Europa League final.
Tella now looks determined to build on that campaign and has posted on his Instagram story pictures of him training in what appears to be a summer camp.
The first of these posts shows Tella in conversation with Armel Bella-Kotchap, the defender Southampton signed for £10 million in summer 2022 but who spent last season on loan at Dutch champions PSV.
The second is another image from the training, with Tella and another former Southampton teammate in Danny Ings – a reported £6 million summer target – working hard ahead of linking up with their clubs for pre-season.
Bella-Kotchap is still a Southampton player, whilst Ings left the club in August 2021.
Bella-Kotchap saw his campaign blighted by injury at PSV last season as he made just two league starts and, whilst he remains high-rated, he may not see potential clubs willing to match Southampton’s valuation this summer.
This could mean we see an unlikely return to the fold for the German at St Mary’s, although it is perhaps still more likely he departs either on loan or permanently.
Ings left under a cloud when he joined Aston Villa for £25 million three years ago, with many fans feeling he had all but committed his future to the club unless a ‘Big Six’ club came in.
Since leaving, the striker has struggled to hit the heights of his time at the Saints and left Villa after just 18 months to sign for West Ham United.
With Russell Martin reportedly keen on a cut-price move for the 31-year-old to add a proven goalscorer at Premier League level to his ranks, it could be that Ings secures a divisive return to the club he scored 46 goals for across 100 appearances.
