Back in the summer Burnley tried to sign Nathan Tella on a permanent deal but refused to offer anywhere near the Saints asking price and indeed the £23 million that he eventually joined Bayer Leverkusen for, now the Lancashire club are set to get revenge on what they saw as Southampton demanding an unfair price.
The transfer saga between Burnley was surreal to say the least back in the summer, Nathan Tella was obviously open to joining the newly promoted Premier League club with whom he had spent 2022/23 season on loan, but Burnley were not willing to pay anywhere near the asking price being asked.
Saints wanted around £17 million for Tella, but with a week to go to the start of the Championship season, Burnley had still not got over £9 million on the table.
Then it took a bizarre twist as we at The Ugly Inside reported in ourFree Nathan Tella story on July 31st.
In simple terms the daughter of Burnley chairman Alan Pace went to extreme lengths to try and get Tella to Burnley.
A video emerged on Ashlyn Pace-Ferguson's TikTok account on entitled 'Free Nathan Tella' and she then stuck 'Missing' posters around the town of Burnley with Tella emblazoned on them.
It was all rather ironic that Pace and his daughter should demand something for free, as the American did just that when he bought Burnley, as reported in The Guardian at the time, Alan Pace and his ALK Capital group bought Burnley in controversial fashion.
It was described as a Leveraged buy out, where the club is bought and then quickly in simple terms re-mortgage their money against the club and it's assets to repay them part or all of their investment.
Not so much as Free Tella, but Free Burnley, who suddenly went from being a club with no debt, to one loaded with it and more to the point the interest is owned & paid by the club itself and not the owner.
Saints stood firm and eventually got a figure of around £23 million from Bayer Leverkusen for Tella, perhaps more than they expected. Tella for his part was the model professional and played for Saints in their opening games in the Championship and also scored.
But it seems that Burnley hold a grudge and it's pay back now as Saints look so take Manuel Benson from the Lancashire club on loan, The Burnley Express are reporting that there is no chance of Benson joining Southampton, they clearly have insider knowledge and say that after Saints turned down Burnley's offer, relations soured between the two clubs now Burnley are going to get their revenge.
This is all a little sad that those running a football club hold a grudge when they clearly were trying to take advantage of Southampton in the summer after the relegation, they seemed to expect us to give them Tella for peanuts, probably assuming that we would be desperate for the money.
When we didn't play game they got funny and now it seems that the spat is going to get worse.