Nathan Tella admits he couldn’t believe when Arsenal let him go

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Nathan Tella has admitted to Vavel that he could not believe it when he was released by Arsenal in 2017, suggesting that he almost felt embarrassed to have been let go.

Tella is one of several extremely exciting youngsters within the Southampton squad. He has not been able to make quite the same impact this term. But at 22, he certainly has time to establish himself as a key man at St Mary’s.

Ralph Hasenhüttl previously labelled Tella the ‘biggest talent‘ in the Southampton squad. And with that, the Saints will see the upside of Arsenal deciding to release Tella five years ago.

Tella’s departure from the Emirates came after 10 years on the books with the Gunners. He made eight appearances for the under-18s, but left before he had the chance to play for the under-23s.

Tella may feel that everything worked out for the best now that he is in and around the first-team on the south coast. But he conceded that he struggled to see things that way when Arsenal decided to release him.

“I couldn’t believe it, Arsenal was all I knew from the age of 6 when I got scouted,” he told Vavel.

“For me it was a bit of an embarrassment because I didn’t know how I was going to tell all my friends and family that I was leaving Arsenal. 

“It was tough because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Maybe stay at Arsenal, try force their hand and make another decision, or if I was to go out on trials.”

Arsenal releasing Tella looks to have worked out for all sides

There are times when Tella looks to be an outrageous talent. He had 19 goal involvements in 45 games for Southampton’s B side. And he has shone on various occasions in the Premier League.

But he is not yet the finished article. He has struggled to get into the Southampton side on a consistent basis this term. And he has been out with injury recently.

With that, Arsenal and Tella can perhaps reflect that that decision to let him go was correct. Playing for Southampton has presented the forward with a clearer path to the first-team fold.

The Saints will hope that he uses the motivation of proving Arsenal wrong to realise his full potential in the coming years.