Nathan Tella

[Saint86]

Wish we had recalled him! 😂

Edited 15 March, 2023 by Saint86

[washsaint]

And yet the lad was deemed not good enough for our s%%$$$of a side.  Unbelievable...around 30 million frittered away on 2 players that are hopeless (Edozie and the other winger)

[Whitey Grandad]

He’s not playing in the Premier League yet. Plenty of players have done well in the Championship yet failed to deliver in a higher league.

[Greedyfly]

27 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He’s not playing in the Premier League yet. Plenty of players have done well in the Championship yet failed to deliver in a higher league.

We have two of the useless cunts up front.

[washsaint]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He’s not playing in the Premier League yet. Plenty of players have done well in the Championship yet failed to deliver in a higher league.

Who gives a rats arse?  We wasted 30 million when we had a player who is as good, if not better, than the 2 signed to play as wingers.  20+ million for Sulemana.  We was mugged

[Nordic Saint]

"He is unplayable"

Hull City 1-3 Burnley | Championship highlights | Video | Watch TV Show | Sky Sports

[Fitzhugh Fella]

7 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He’s not playing in the Premier League yet. Plenty of players have done well in the Championship yet failed to deliver in a higher league.

Yes we know. But are what we have currently any better? Did Ralph give him a decent run? Was he played in his strongest position? Was he properly man managed while he was here? If you ask me the Nathan Tella situation sums up this football club. Clueless on and off the pitch. He must be dreading coming back. 

[The Curse of St Mary's]

8 hours ago, washsaint said:

And yet the lad was deemed not good enough for our s%%$$$of a side.  Unbelievable...around 30 million frittered away on 2 players that are hopeless (Edozie and the other winger)

Tella is not a winger. He doesn't have the technical skills to be a winger. He's a striker because he's quick and clearly now knows where the net is. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

8 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He’s not playing in the Premier League yet. Plenty of players have done well in the Championship yet failed to deliver in a higher league.

Not only that, but he’s playing for a team that has decent coaching and co-players that know how to pass/attack at pace. He’d be wasted here and frankly, I don’t see him wanting to come back. Wouldn’t blame him one bit.

[Mattster]

53 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Not only that, but he’s playing for a team that has decent coaching and co-players that know how to pass/attack at pace. He’d be wasted here and frankly, I don’t see him wanting to come back. Wouldn’t blame him one bit.

Watching Tella play for Burnley I do find myself wondering how many of our other players could thrive given the right coaching and playing environment. I very much doubt he would be performing like this for us, and not necessarily just because of the step up in quality required in the prem.

Much as I'd love to see him come back and play for us in the Championship, I actually think it would be an act of inhumane cruelty to deprive him of the chance to play for Burnley in the prem next season. He seems very happy up there, his football is flourishing and the fans love him so I say let him go.

Edited 16 March, 2023 by Mattster

[S-Clarke]

This is just demonstrating how well the loan window works. He was clearly down the pecking order in the summer, whether that was right or wrong is up for debate, but rather than sit around as a squad player here we allowed him to get game time at Burnley - and it has risen his level. 

I thought he was ready to explode after a pre-season a year or so back, but it never really happened due to the environment here (chop and change galore). This has given him the opportunity of regular football he needed so bad. 

This puts us in a stronger position whatever the outcome. We either make a tidy sum on a player whose value has risen 10 fold in 12 months, or we have him next season and he tears it up for us. Whilst it's frustrating to see him perform there and not here you have to understand the circumstances are different, he'd have never had the opportunity here for the run he's had at Burnley.

Edited 16 March, 2023 by S-Clarke

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

On 11/03/2023 at 21:10, VectisSaint said:

Its quite straightforward really. We will sell Tella because he doesn't want to come back and that is the only way we can come out of it with anything. We wanted to get him back in January but neither the club (Burnley) or the player wanted to end the loan early (as I understand). Tella has become very important to Burnley, and they will be in the PL next season, why would he want to come back? The only slight issue is that Burnley may not be able or willing to pay very much. Its not that we want to sell him, but we will have very little choice.  

I'm sure most of our players won't want to play in the Championship, but they have signed their contracts so its tough luck. It's not like its a big 6 club that's going to want to sign him.

Tella won't have had anything to do with whether he came back in January. Burnley could have said no, as is their right when paying to loan a player, but it was all hands to the pump in January, so I can't see Saints not bringing him back because he didn't want to. Same reason we got Bednarek and not Stephens - Villa didn't want Bednarek whereas Bournemouth wanted Stephens.

Yes, exactly, Burnley aren't going to pay the kind of money that will make it worthwhile for us to sell him. I just cannot see SR doing it when there will be a handful of players that we will have to sell before their contracts run out - like Salisu and Adams - and others that will be sold to "big 6" teams - like KWP, Lavia, ABK and possibly JWP.

Financially there will be no need for SR to sell Tella, especially as we are going to get 3 years of parachute payments. We are way under our FFP limits for spending for the next few years, so it all boils down to how much money SR are willing to spend short term to get us back up. Given everything they have said about the multi-club model relying on us being in the premier league to then sell our players to elite clubs, I think that they would rather keep a slightly disgruntled Tella for a year in the championship and get promoted than sell him.

People here haven't clocked onto how much the PL finances have changed football over the last 5 years. If Norwich, Fulham and Watford can hold onto proven PL goal scorers like Pukki, Mitrovich and Sarr when they go into the Championship, then I'm certain that we can hold onto Tella after one good season in the Championship.

The only reason I can see Tella not being here next year is if SR and the Saints scouts don't think he will be getting a starting role. If they think 2 of the Armstrong twins, Djenepo, Edozie, Sulemana and Orsic are better than Tella, then he won't be here next year.

[derry]

If any Saints manager thinks that any of those are better than Tella they need replacing. Keeping Tella is a no brainer. Elyonoussie, Armstrong A, Adams aren't in the same class as a goalscoring front man because he has lightning pace. He reverts to being a Saints player at the end of the season. As for the January window, it was purely a Saints decision, Burnley and Tella had no say in it apart from asking if he could stay as there was a recall clause in the loan agreement which was confirmed by Kompany in December. I think Villa wanted rid of Bednarek anyway. Maybe Stephens either didn't have a recall clause or we waived it as we did with Tella. 

Edited 16 March, 2023 by derry

[VectisSaint]

7 hours ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

I'm sure most of our players won't want to play in the Championship, but they have signed their contracts so its tough luck. It's not like its a big 6 club that's going to want to sign him.

Tella won't have had anything to do with whether he came back in January. Burnley could have said no, as is their right when paying to loan a player, but it was all hands to the pump in January, so I can't see Saints not bringing him back because he didn't want to. Same reason we got Bednarek and not Stephens - Villa didn't want Bednarek whereas Bournemouth wanted Stephens.

Yes, exactly, Burnley aren't going to pay the kind of money that will make it worthwhile for us to sell him. I just cannot see SR doing it when there will be a handful of players that we will have to sell before their contracts run out - like Salisu and Adams - and others that will be sold to "big 6" teams - like KWP, Lavia, ABK and possibly JWP.

Financially there will be no need for SR to sell Tella, especially as we are going to get 3 years of parachute payments. We are way under our FFP limits for spending for the next few years, so it all boils down to how much money SR are willing to spend short term to get us back up. Given everything they have said about the multi-club model relying on us being in the premier league to then sell our players to elite clubs, I think that they would rather keep a slightly disgruntled Tella for a year in the championship and get promoted than sell him.

People here haven't clocked onto how much the PL finances have changed football over the last 5 years. If Norwich, Fulham and Watford can hold onto proven PL goal scorers like Pukki, Mitrovich and Sarr when they go into the Championship, then I'm certain that we can hold onto Tella after one good season in the Championship.

The only reason I can see Tella not being here next year is if SR and the Saints scouts don't think he will be getting a starting role. If they think 2 of the Armstrong twins, Djenepo, Edozie, Sulemana and Orsic are better than Tella, then he won't be here next year.

I'm sorry but it sounds like you don't know much about the loans system, and not much understanding of player power. If a player doesn't like what they are "offered" they can easily get out of it, especially if like Tella you have somewhere else to go. Tella had every right to say he didn't want to come back in January, it has to be agreed with the club and the player. He allegedly said no thanks, and who could blame him after the way Ralph seemingly treated him. I am very confident that we will never see Tella in a Saints shirt again. 

[Baird of the land]

When tella scored his previous hatrick I idly wondered if he might end up scoring more than the entire saints squad. Currently it’s 17 to 20, so he’s still got work to do but unlike saints he’s more likely to score per game.

hope if any of the existing personnel were involved in the decisions in any way to loan him out and not recall him, that they are removed from the club in the summer.

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

3 hours ago, derry said:

If any Saints manager thinks that any of those are better than Tella they need replacing. Keeping Tella is a no brainer. Elyonoussie, Armstrong A, Adams aren't in the same class as a goalscoring front man because he has lightning pace. He reverts to being a Saints player at the end of the season. As for the January window, it was purely a Saints decision, Burnley and Tella had no say in it apart from asking if he could stay as there was a recall clause in the loan agreement which was confirmed by Kompany in December. I think Villa wanted rid of Bednarek anyway. Maybe Stephens either didn't have a recall clause or we waived it as we did with Tella. 

Well, lets compare Che and A.Armstrong's last seasons in the Championship to Tella's current one.

Tella, age 23 at the start of the 22/23 season, is playing for the best team in the league. He has 17 goals and 3 assists - 0.70 goals and 0.12 assists per 90. He is overperforming his XG of 0.41 per 90, which you could either read that he has been lucky in some of his goals, or that he is a good finisher.

Che, age 22 at the start of the 18/19 season, was in a poor Birmingham City team that finished 17th in the table. He got 22 goals and 4 assists - 0.53 goals and 0.10 assists per 90. He also overperformed his XG of 0.39 per 90 and underperformed his XA of 0.15 per 90, which suggests he was playing alongside poor finishers.

Armstrong, age 23 at the start of the 20/21 season, was in a poor Blackburn Rovers team that finished 15th in the table. He got 28 goals and 5 assists - 0.73 goals and 0.13 assists per 90. He essentially met his XG of 0.76 and XA of 0.12  per 90.

So, Tella is having similar seasons to Che and Armstrong before they finished in the Championship, at the same age, but in a much better team. What this shows is that the difference in level between the Championship and Premier League is huge. Adams and Armstrong have both improved since they made the step up, but both still struggle to score goals in the Premier League. Adams, especially, is a much better player now but still isn't prolific like he was in the Champ.

I'm not trying to put down Tella, who I think is a good player and that we should keep him in the summer, but just as A.Armstrong scored lots of goals in the Champ and very few in the PL its not a massive surprise that although Tella scored only 1 goal in the PL that he is scoring lots in the Champ.

My point is, that I could understand why a manager might think that some of our attacking players will be just as good, if not better. The fact is that our coaches haven't all been rubbish for the last few years, or the players don't care etc. It's just now very hard to score goals in the PL and very few players successfully make that jump - whether from the Champ or a different league.

Also, Tella will be 24 in the summer and at about his peak. I could see a coach choosing to back Sulamana and Edozie instead, who are both 4 and 5 years younger. I'm just saying there are legitimate reasons that a manager might prefer some of our current players.

[THINWHITEDUKE]

Don’t think Burnley have the authorisation from the FA to buy Tella, haven’t they been in issued with a transfer embargo?

[East Kent Saint]

18 minutes ago, THINWHITEDUKE said:

Don’t think Burnley have the authorisation from the FA to buy Tella, haven’t they been in issued with a transfer embargo?

Yes , for late accounts , I would have thought it would be easy to rectify unless they are hiding something !

[AlexLaw76]

34 minutes ago, THINWHITEDUKE said:

Don’t think Burnley have the authorisation from the FA to buy Tella, haven’t they been in issued with a transfer embargo?

I thought it was an EFL transfer embargo? Not a problem soon enough if that is the case

[derry]

1 hour ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Well, lets compare Che and A.Armstrong's last seasons in the Championship to Tella's current one.

Tella, age 23 at the start of the 22/23 season, is playing for the best team in the league. He has 17 goals and 3 assists - 0.70 goals and 0.12 assists per 90. He is overperforming his XG of 0.41 per 90, which you could either read that he has been lucky in some of his goals, or that he is a good finisher.

Che, age 22 at the start of the 18/19 season, was in a poor Birmingham City team that finished 17th in the table. He got 22 goals and 4 assists - 0.53 goals and 0.10 assists per 90. He also overperformed his XG of 0.39 per 90 and underperformed his XA of 0.15 per 90, which suggests he was playing alongside poor finishers.

Armstrong, age 23 at the start of the 20/21 season, was in a poor Blackburn Rovers team that finished 15th in the table. He got 28 goals and 5 assists - 0.73 goals and 0.13 assists per 90. He essentially met his XG of 0.76 and XA of 0.12  per 90.

So, Tella is having similar seasons to Che and Armstrong before they finished in the Championship, at the same age, but in a much better team. What this shows is that the difference in level between the Championship and Premier League is huge. Adams and Armstrong have both improved since they made the step up, but both still struggle to score goals in the Premier League. Adams, especially, is a much better player now but still isn't prolific like he was in the Champ.

I'm not trying to put down Tella, who I think is a good player and that we should keep him in the summer, but just as A.Armstrong scored lots of goals in the Champ and very few in the PL its not a massive surprise that although Tella scored only 1 goal in the PL that he is scoring lots in the Champ.

My point is, that I could understand why a manager might think that some of our attacking players will be just as good, if not better. The fact is that our coaches haven't all been rubbish for the last few years, or the players don't care etc. It's just now very hard to score goals in the PL and very few players successfully make that jump - whether from the Champ or a different league.

Also, Tella will be 24 in the summer and at about his peak. I could see a coach choosing to back Sulamana and Edozie instead, who are both 4 and 5 years younger. I'm just saying there are legitimate reasons that a manager might prefer some of our current players.

This mathematical bullshit is meaningless. All one needs is two eyes and a football brain to see what he does. I can see that Adams, Armstrong  and Elyonoussie have no idea, make no runs and don't have Tella's pace. He plays on the blindside and on the halfway line and is always available for through balls and to come in on the 45 off the back post either behind the defenders or late across the ball watching  defenders to get to the ball first. That's why he is scoring so many goals. He looks like a top class striker. If we put a big price on him he'll be going nowhere.

Edited 16 March, 2023 by derry

[Whitey Grandad]

3 minutes ago, derry said:

This mathematical bullshit is meaningless. All one needs is two eyes and a football brain to see what he does. I can see that Adams, Armstrong  and Elyonoussie have no idea, make no runs and don't have Tella's pace. He plays on the blindside and on the halfway line and is always available for through balls and to come in on the 45 off the back post either behind the defenders or late across the ball watching  defenders to get to the ball first. That's why he is scoring so many goals. He looks like a top class striker. If we put a big price on him he'll be going nowhere.

Adams, Armstrong and Elyonoussi weren’t clueless until they’d been at Saints for a little while.

[FarehamSaintJames]

As if Tella will be staying with us next season. 🤣

Half the people on this forum said he wasn’t good enough. 
If he wants to leave come the end of the season after his promotion and our relegation then good on him, he’s earned it, 100%! We shouldn’t stand in his way.

[woodsaint1]

25 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

As if Tella will be staying with us next season. 🤣

Half the people on this forum said he wasn’t good enough. 
If he wants to leave come the end of the season after his promotion and our relegation then good on him, he’s earned it, 100%! We shouldn’t stand in his way.

Hes not like JWP who's performances and long standing commitment to us makes him deserving of a move complete with our well wishes. Hes under contract until mid 2025 and unless Burnley or another club fork out a sizeable fee, he'll be plying his trade in the Championship again next season

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

12 hours ago, derry said:

This mathematical bullshit is meaningless. All one needs is two eyes and a football brain to see what he does. I can see that Adams, Armstrong  and Elyonoussie have no idea, make no runs and don't have Tella's pace. He plays on the blindside and on the halfway line and is always available for through balls and to come in on the 45 off the back post either behind the defenders or late across the ball watching  defenders to get to the ball first. That's why he is scoring so many goals. He looks like a top class striker. If we put a big price on him he'll be going nowhere.

But what you aren't comprehending is that Adams and Armstrong looked just as good, at the same age, when the difference between the PL and Champ wasn't as vast. Armstrong was basically the same player. 23 years old, one of the fastest players in the Champ, made great runs and created loads of goal scoring opportunities for himself.

My point is that in the PL the spaces that Tella is able to exploit won't be there as often. It is just fundamentally much harder to score in the PL with much better organised and athletic defences. Just as Armstrong has struggled in the PL, I don't think it is guaranteed that Tella will do well due to his goals at Burnley.

[AlexLaw76]

15 minutes ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

But what you aren't comprehending is that Adams and Armstrong looked just as good, at the same age, when the difference between the PL and Champ wasn't as vast. Armstrong was basically the same player. 23 years old, one of the fastest players in the Champ, made great runs and created loads of goal scoring opportunities for himself.

My point is that in the PL the spaces that Tella is able to exploit won't be there as often. It is just fundamentally much harder to score in the PL with much better organised and athletic defences. Just as Armstrong has struggled in the PL, I don't think it is guaranteed that Tella will do well due to his goals at Burnley.

They are different players. Lambert was great in the championship and great in the premier league, same for Mitrovic and many other players

We cannot keep saying player-x will be no use in the premier league just because Adam Armstrong is crap

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

They are different players. Lambert was great in the championship and great in the premier league, same for Mitrovic and many other players

We cannot keep saying player-x will be no use in the premier league just because Adam Armstrong is crap

Neither can you say that the converse is true.

[AlexLaw76]

Fonte was pretty average in the Championship, but brilliant in the Premier League - how can that be?

[saintwbu]

I’m not sure many were bemoaning Tella’s loan in the summer. It’s likely that without this spell of regular game time in a dominant team full of confidence, Tella would be looking like most of our other attacking players. I’ve mentioned it before that whilst a lot of people talk about Tella like he’s a youngster just breaking through, he’s almost exactly 1 year younger than Moussa Djenepo who has been written off as useless about 3/4 seasons ago. He’s also nearly 3 and 4 years older than Sulemana and Edozie respectively, who are also being written off as a waste of money. I’ve no doubt there’s several of our current attacking options that would look transformed with a year playing for by far the best team in the Championship. Whilst it’s understandable people will be asking why a player so prolific is not playing for us given our attacking struggles, it’s probably better to accept it was a sensible loan move that achieved its intended goal - it’s allowed the player to develop in a way he wouldn’t have been able to with us, where the expectation is lower and the feeling around the club is more positive, and it’s given us either a great option for next season in the Championship or a good transfer fee. People are quick to criticise our recruitment of attacking players, but perhaps should consider how hard it must be for a player (particularly a young one) to move into a team lacking in confidence, belief, and often quality, and suddenly lift it on their own. The last attacking player we signed that could be deemed an undoubted success in my opinion was Danny Ings, and prior to that it was probably Sadio Mane! Not all of that can be solely down to poor scouting and recruitment. We’re a graveyard for attacking players in the last 5/6 seasons. 

[VectisSaint]

14 hours ago, THINWHITEDUKE said:

Don’t think Burnley have the authorisation from the FA to buy Tella, haven’t they been in issued with a transfer embargo?

It is an EFL embargo. Burnley won't be in the EFL next season and anyway the embargo is expected to be lifted shortly.

[LuckyNumber7]

13 hours ago, derry said:

This mathematical bullshit is meaningless. All one needs is two eyes and a football brain to see what he does. I can see that Adams, Armstrong  and Elyonoussie have no idea, make no runs and don't have Tella's pace. He plays on the blindside and on the halfway line and is always available for through balls and to come in on the 45 off the back post either behind the defenders or late across the ball watching  defenders to get to the ball first. That's why he is scoring so many goals. He looks like a top class striker. If we put a big price on him he'll be going nowhere.

And yet Tella looked pretty clueless himself in the PL last season. It is a lot easier to score goals in the Championship where a lot of his goals that I've seen have come from really poor defending.  Hopefully this season has done him the world of good and if he stays he tears it up for us whatever division we're in, but he could just as easily be another Adam Armstrong. He has proved nothing in the Premier League yet and if he were still here would very unlikely be our saviour.

[Nordic Saint]

2 hours ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

But what you aren't comprehending is that Adams and Armstrong looked just as good, at the same age, when the difference between the PL and Champ wasn't as vast. Armstrong was basically the same player. 23 years old, one of the fastest players in the Champ, made great runs and created loads of goal scoring opportunities for himself.

My point is that in the PL the spaces that Tella is able to exploit won't be there as often. It is just fundamentally much harder to score in the PL with much better organised and athletic defences. Just as Armstrong has struggled in the PL, I don't think it is guaranteed that Tella will do well due to his goals at Burnley.

I think we all understood that you compared Tella's goals total from 3/4 of this season with Adams' and Armstrong's totals from the whole of their best seasons, and stopped reading at that point. 😀

[saint1977]

2 hours ago, saintwbu said:

I’m not sure many were bemoaning Tella’s loan in the summer. It’s likely that without this spell of regular game time in a dominant team full of confidence, Tella would be looking like most of our other attacking players. I’ve mentioned it before that whilst a lot of people talk about Tella like he’s a youngster just breaking through, he’s almost exactly 1 year younger than Moussa Djenepo who has been written off as useless about 3/4 seasons ago. He’s also nearly 3 and 4 years older than Sulemana and Edozie respectively, who are also being written off as a waste of money. I’ve no doubt there’s several of our current attacking options that would look transformed with a year playing for by far the best team in the Championship. Whilst it’s understandable people will be asking why a player so prolific is not playing for us given our attacking struggles, it’s probably better to accept it was a sensible loan move that achieved its intended goal - it’s allowed the player to develop in a way he wouldn’t have been able to with us, where the expectation is lower and the feeling around the club is more positive, and it’s given us either a great option for next season in the Championship or a good transfer fee. People are quick to criticise our recruitment of attacking players, but perhaps should consider how hard it must be for a player (particularly a young one) to move into a team lacking in confidence, belief, and often quality, and suddenly lift it on their own. The last attacking player we signed that could be deemed an undoubted success in my opinion was Danny Ings, and prior to that it was probably Sadio Mane! Not all of that can be solely down to poor scouting and recruitment. We’re a graveyard for attacking players in the last 5/6 seasons. 

The difference is playing for a name manager at that level who knows what they are doing, and who knows the market for good loans (the full back from Chelsea) and deals. We need to find our equivalent of Kompany plus their own coaching team, set the budget, and let them get on with it. Name manager and contacts could give us the season Burnley are having with the fear taken away, another ‘clever/weird’ hire could be a return to League One. Get it right Dragan and Rasmus - go for a big name with contacts, Saints always do better.

[Baird of the land]

1 hour ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

And yet Tella looked pretty clueless himself in the PL last season. It is a lot easier to score goals in the Championship where a lot of his goals that I've seen have come from really poor defending.  Hopefully this season has done him the world of good and if he stays he tears it up for us whatever division we're in, but he could just as easily be another Adam Armstrong. He has proved nothing in the Premier League yet and if he were still here would very unlikely be our saviour.

I'd still argue there were flashes last season. The Brighton away game for example where he was involved in both our goals.

He was also involved a lot less than his breakout season which was odd. Even more odd for a player with bags of pace we didn't use him off the bench as an impact sub much. If he was here he'd be unlikely to have less impact than (22M on Sulemana, 6M on Orsic and 10M on Edozie) have had so far and would have cost us just the loan fee.

 

[bugenhagen]

15 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Adams, Armstrong and Elyonoussi weren’t clueless until they’d been at Saints for a little while.

I think this is a serious problem. Keep Tella at the start of the season, and ship out Armstrong - and we would now be calling Tella useless, and drooling at the prospect of getting Armstrong back next season...

[The Kraken]

A bit of revisionism going on in this thread. Tella burst onto the scene with Saints but he didn’t do much after that. He looked pretty terrible this pre-season, albeit Ralph had a weird idea of playing him in a central role up front. Despite that the kid looked overwhelmed in the summer and when he left I doubt many of the posters in here bemoaning his absence were saying, back then, that it was a mistake to let him go. As showed he appeared in 18 league games for us in 20/21 and 14 league games in 21/22. 2 goals in all that time, a total of 40 games in all competitions, a goal every 20 games (accepted, many were as a sub).

The loan has worked out great for him, it has given him much more playing time just when he needed it. And he’s still only 23. I’m almost glad he didn’t stay as I’m sure we wouldn’t have afforded him chances and we’d have made him worse. But, hindsight aside, it was the right decision to loan him out, particularly for him. Just because we signed a bunch of shit for huge money (and still have to play the joke Elyounoussi in that position) doesn’t necessarily Tella would have been the answer had he stayed. Sometimes a move away works well for players, and Tella is flying since leaving us, absolute kudos to him for it. I hope he gets what he wants from whatever happens.

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

10 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

I think we all understood that you compared Tella's goals total from 3/4 of this season with Adams' and Armstrong's totals from the whole of their best seasons, and stopped reading at that point. 😀

I literally put the goals per 90 and used the 2 seasons before they played in the PL... because this is likely Tella's season before the PL. They were both the same age or younger than Tella at the time. I don't think there could be a better reference point.

[egg]

9 hours ago, The Kraken said:

A bit of revisionism going on in this thread. Tella burst onto the scene with Saints but he didn’t do much after that. He looked pretty terrible this pre-season, albeit Ralph had a weird idea of playing him in a central role up front. Despite that the kid looked overwhelmed in the summer and when he left I doubt many of the posters in here bemoaning his absence were saying, back then, that it was a mistake to let him go. As showed he appeared in 18 league games for us in 20/21 and 14 league games in 21/22. 2 goals in all that time, a total of 40 games in all competitions, a goal every 20 games (accepted, many were as a sub).

The loan has worked out great for him, it has given him much more playing time just when he needed it. And he’s still only 23. I’m almost glad he didn’t stay as I’m sure we wouldn’t have afforded him chances and we’d have made him worse. But, hindsight aside, it was the right decision to loan him out, particularly for him. Just because we signed a bunch of shit for huge money (and still have to play the joke Elyounoussi in that position) doesn’t necessarily Tella would have been the answer had he stayed. Sometimes a move away works well for players, and Tella is flying since leaving us, absolute kudos to him for it. I hope he gets what he wants from whatever happens.

You do not mention that we could have recalled him in the window. I agree that loaning him in the summer was the correct decision for the reasons you state, but I think there's little doubt that he'd have improved us if he'd been recalled in the window. 

[SotonianWill]

19 hours ago, saint1977 said:

The difference is playing for a name manager at that level who knows what they are doing, and who knows the market for good loans (the full back from Chelsea) and deals. We need to find our equivalent of Kompany plus their own coaching team, set the budget, and let them get on with it. Name manager and contacts could give us the season Burnley are having with the fear taken away, another ‘clever/weird’ hire could be a return to League One. Get it right Dragan and Rasmus - go for a big name with contacts, Saints always do better.

we could get viera. or even someone like *shakes head* gerrard, shit in the prem but his connections would take us back up i’m sure of it. 

[The Kraken]

1 hour ago, egg said:

You do not mention that we could have recalled him in the window. I agree that loaning him in the summer was the correct decision for the reasons you state, but I think there's little doubt that he'd have improved us if he'd been recalled in the window. 

I don’t disagree with that. But the club decided to go for Orsic, so another player to “challenge” in that position with Elyounoussi and Edozie. Then they signed Sulemana, another one to challenge.  Plus, from what I gather, Tella wasn’t all that keen on coming back anyway. And we had Nathan Jones at the helm then, which would’ve been a massive backwards step for him. Both parties came to the conclusion that a recall wasn’t the best option for him, and they were right.

A complete cock up of transfers, but it wasn’t as if we didn’t bring Tella back to shore a gap. The signings we made just aren’t cutting the mustard.

[swannymere]

Bringing Tella back in the window into an underperforming and low in confidence team would probably have messed him up.

[CB Fry]

Oh why oh why oh why oh why didn't we solve our Premier League goalscoring problems by recalling from loan someone who has scored one entire goal in the Premier League in his career.

[Baird of the land]

1 hour ago, swannymere said:

Bringing Tella back in the window into an underperforming and low in confidence team would probably have messed him up.

What rubbish. By that logic underperforming teams should never buy players

[derry]

2 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Oh why oh why oh why oh why didn't we solve our Premier League goalscoring problems by recalling from loan someone who has scored one entire goal in the Premier League in his career.

And spend £60m on five players who hadn't even played in the Premier League.  At least Tella had the 41 matches he had previously experienced and now has the confidence to exploit that. However we don't seem to have much idea in the coaching set up to try and get the best out of players especially if they see Elyonoussie as a key player. Onuachu, instead of playing in and around the box and being fed has wasted three matches trying to press like Adams. Sulemana the fastest player on the pitch going backwards to allow Perrault to overlap and neutered. So maybe Tella wouldnt have worked as we used either full back to overlap him.

[Dell McDellFace]

Given the most likely scenario - Burnley promoted and Saints relegated, then what would make sense, especially given Burnley's transfer embargo, is to offer Tella an improved contract with us with the offer of lending him to Burnley for another season. He would be able to disprove the "found his level in the Championship" doubters, his value would potentially go up. At 24 he deserves a chance to play at the highest level to prove himself, but we benefit from his increased value.

[Sarisbury Saint]

On 16/03/2023 at 21:14, Whitey Grandad said:

Adams, Armstrong and Elyonoussi weren’t clueless until they’d been at Saints for a little while.

Outside the premier leagues they weren’t. But that’s their level.

[Lighthouse]

42 minutes ago, derry said:

At least Tella had the 41 matches he had previously experienced and now has the confidence to exploit that. However we don't seem to have much idea in the coaching set up to try and get the best out of players especially if they see Elyonoussie as a key player.

That's contradictory, Moi himslef has 70 PL appearances and two years playing against Arbroath and St Mirren to boost his confidence. He's still useless. No amount of confidence is going to suddenly turn Tella into a PL player.

[SotonianWill]

33 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

That's contradictory, Moi himslef has 70 PL appearances and two years playing against Arbroath and St Mirren to boost his confidence. He's still useless. No amount of confidence is going to suddenly turn Tella into a PL player.

Add the fact adam armstrong came off a season of scoring 28 goals, you’ll struggle to get any more confidence after that. And he still turnt out shit

[CB Fry]

2 hours ago, derry said:

And spend £60m on five players who hadn't even played in the Premier League.  At least Tella had the 41 matches he had previously experienced and now has the confidence to exploit that. However we don't seem to have much idea in the coaching set up to try and get the best out of players especially if they see Elyonoussie as a key player. Onuachu, instead of playing in and around the box and being fed has wasted three matches trying to press like Adams. Sulemana the fastest player on the pitch going backwards to allow Perrault to overlap and neutered. So maybe Tella wouldnt have worked as we used either full back to overlap him.

I can only imagine the joy in the fanbase if the manager was given no new players and no investment from SR at all in January, apart from re-signing Nathan Tellla.

I can imagine no downside to that scenario on February 1st whatsoever.

[Toadhall Saint]

The chance he had earlier against nab city is a good point in case. Against a championship team - he scores. Against a PL defender he doesn’t.

[woodsaint1]

Was it even possible to recall Tella? I thought for loan cancellations either both clubs had to be in agreement (i.e. Bednarek where it wasnt working out or if the player picked up an injury lasting most or all of the loan term), or if we had a flurry of injuries and needed emergency cover (applies more to GKs). Neither applied to Tella so not sure it was as straight forward as some make out. Perhaps MLG could return to shed some light