Nathan Tella caught the eye of Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl with a stunning, four-goal performance against Leicester City’s U23s last weekend, as reported by the Daily Echo.
With fellow youngster Dan N’Lundulu being rewarded with a few minutes off the bench in Sunday’s 3-0 trouncing of Sheffield United, 21-year-old Tella should be confident that opportunities will come his way if he continues to shine behind the scenes.
The ex-Arsenal youngster has been training with Southampton’s first-team for a while now, admitting that it was a ‘dream come true’ to share a pitch with one-time Gunners star Theo Walcott last week.
After scoring four times in a 5-2 victory over Leicester in Premier League 2, don’t be surprised if Tella is linking up with Walcott on the biggest of stages sooner rather than later.
“We have young lads like Nathan Tella, who got four goals in the second team at the weekend. I am really happy when I see this, because they are young lads we want to force,” explained Hasenhuttl, a coach who played a major role in the development of Timo Werner and Naby Keita at RB Leipzig.
“It’s difficult at the moment to find a spot for everybody in the team – they all deserve to play – they are all working hard during the week but I can only take 11 players.
“That’s how it should be, everybody is pushing hard. The quality of training is good, that means we are getting better.”
N’Lundulu is not the only Southampton youngster who has been handed a first-team debut by Hasenhuttl since he replaced Mark Hughes at St Mary’s two years ago..
Kayne Ramsey, Jake Vokins and Will Smallbone were also given a chance by the so-called ‘Alpine Klopp’ as the Saints look for the next Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Theo Walcott.
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