He has played only 4 times for the club in the last two years so most Southampton supporters will not see the German internationals departure to Hellas Verona as a big loss.

Those in charge of Southampton FC would I suspect have preferred to have got some sort of a fee for ABK from a permanent deal, so a loan move is definitely the second choice outcome in this saga.

It will get his wages off the books for the season which will be a substantial saving.

According to The Daily Echo the season long loan comes with an option to buy for the Serie A side at the end of the deal.

This seems strange given that the players contract is due up at the end of this season, but it suggests that under his present deal the club have the option of a years extension should they wish to activate it.

But I would think that the chances of actually doing this are slim, unless ABK has a tremendous injury free season that sees his transfer value soar, then why would they take the risk of giving him another year's contract and see him go out on loan again.

If they don't activate that extra year then Hellas Verona will simply sign him as a free agent next summer.

There are some who have berated Bella-Kotchap as they see him as being disloyal after expressing the wish to go out on loan in the summer of 2023 after stating he did not want to play in the Championship.

This sadly is modern football, for supporters it is their lives, for players it is merely a job.

Last season he stayed at the club and was fit for most of the season, but he played just 4 Premier League games, given our centre of defence was woeful, I was surprised that only Ivan Juric saw fit to give him a chance, it would have taken more than just ABK to keep us up, but we might have had a better chance if he had been used more.

When he arrived in the summer of 2022 he initially looked a bargain and his form in his first games earned him a call up to the German World Cup squad, but injury problems had already reared their ugly head.

When he finally shook them off in what would be Ruben Selles first game in charge he was superb in a 1-0 win at Chelsea and subsequently starred in some other good results that briefly gave us hope that we could stay up,

But injury hit again and he would miss 5 of the last 10 games due to more injury issues.

Armel Bella-Kotchap won't be missed by Southampton fans and that is sad, because he has what it takes to be a truly top player, sadly injury is the main cause as to why that hasn't happened in the last 4 years since he arrived at Southampton FC, that and the strange situation where 3 managers did not wish to play him even though it was a dire situation, that suggests that there was some sort of contractual obligation for a pay rise when he hit a certain number of games.

That is backed up by the fact that Ivan Juric tried him for 4 games,, possibly hoping that we would win them and get back in a position to actually stay up, in which case we would gamble on staying up by triggering the pay increase.

At the moment ABK has played 28 League games in total for the club, which suggests that the number to trigger that obligation was 30 League games.

Good luck to Armel Bella-Kotchap at Hellas Verona, all Saints fans should wish that, if only for the fact that if he does well it might trigger that contact extension that could bring us in around £7 million in transfer fee.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 15:21 - Aug 27 Was really pleased with his performances upto the first shoulder disclication He never really got back to full fitness after that His quality was obvious hence his selection for the Geman national team
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