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Nathan Tella Joins Bayer Leverkusen

This news will not be a surprise for Southampton supporters after Tella's name was not on the teamsheet for the game against Queens Park Rangers, however most will consider this a good piece of business given the performance of his replacement in this game.

Transfers are often part of a chain and when Ryan Fraser arrived at St Mary's on loan from Newcastle on Friday, it was fairly predictable that Nathan Tella would be leaving.

A year ago few Saints supporters were upset on his departure on loan to Burnley, in his 33 appearances in the Premier League for the club he had scored just once and although had shown promise, had failed to show consistency.

His time at Burnley saw him hit 17 goals and his stock rise and many hoped that he would be able to replicate that form, he didn't play badly in any of his games, but he was not explosive and even after Burnley had ceased any interest in signing him on a permanent basis, there was just the feeling that Russell Martin wanted something different in his team and that a good offer might just tempt Saints into selling.

So it was no surprise this morning when Southampton FC announced that Tella had signed for Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. It seems that the £20 million fee was too good to resist.

It is a strange move in many ways, yes he is moving to a top European League, but it is a one sided competition with Bayern Munich dominating and having won it most years since the end of the last century. Although Leverkusen reached the semi final of the Europa League last season and therefore it is possibly the lure of European competition is the attraction.

But if Saints supporters were disappointed to see Tella's name missing from the teamsheet they were buoyed by the fact that Ryan Fraser newly loaned from Newcastle was on the subs bench and they would soon see that he could perhaps become a big asset to the team.

Good luck to Nathan Tella, we perhaps never many of his best games of his career so far, I hope he succeeds at Bayer Leverkusen and indeed wherever he goes, sometimes I think a football club knows when they have been offered more than the worth of a player and it makes sense to sell him both from a financial viewpoint and on the field.

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