Armel Bella-Kotchap exploits will frustrate Southampton FC: View | OneFootball

Armel Bella-Kotchap was one of many players to leave Southampton following their relegation from the Premier League last season.

The Saints finished bottom of the top flight, and relegation meant that they had to offload a lot of their high earners amongst the squad, in order to balance the books.

This led to sales of some of their best players such as Romeo Lavia, Nathan Tella, Toni Livramento and James Ward-Prowse.

But some of the players that they loaned out, they would have been hoping would do well in order to facilitate a permanent move this summer to raise more funds.

However, Bella-Kotchap has not done as well as anyone would have expected.

Armel Bella-Kotchap has struggled with PSV

There were plenty of rumours surrounding Bella-Kotchap leaving Southampton for some of the biggest clubs in Europe, with German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund said to be interested. He reportedly has a release clause of £25 million, but in the end, it was not triggered.

Then in September, the centre-back secured a loan move for the season to one of the biggest clubs in the Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven.

But his spell in Holland has not gone as well as anyone would have been hoping.

Since his move across The North Sea, the 22-year-old has only made six appearances in total for the club, being rarely used.

He has played a total of 163 minutes in the Eredivisie, whilst also playing three times in the second division with PSV’s second team.

He has only played one minute of football since the start of March, coming on as a late substitute in a win over Go Ahead Eagles.

Injuries have not helped his case either, as he suffered a shoulder injury in October that required surgery, which kept him on the sidelines until February.

Southampton would have been hoping Armel Bella-Kotchap would have done better on loan

Having gone from playing regularly in the Premier League and representing Germany at a World Cup to barely getting any playing time at PSV within a year will come as a major shock to many.

Being linked with Bayern and Dortmund is no mean feat, so to see his stock fall so much this season will be gutting.

The Saints will be hoping that Bella-Kotchap starts playing before the end of the season, so that it can aid his development ahead of a potential return to the team or a future sale.

Russell Martin implied before Bella-Kotchap left that he would be happy to have Bella-Kotchap in the squad in August, saying: "Armel just excites you by looking at him because of his sheer size and physicality. When you look at him, he is an imposing guy. When I shook his hand on the first day, I thought he was huge. He possesses unbelievable athleticism and physicality.

"If he is here, I will be really excited to work with him because I think he can definitely help us, and we can help him. It's in his own interest, and our own, to get him fit and see what happens then."

Based on what Martin said, it would not be a surprise to see him potentially make his way back into the Southampton squad next season.

He may now think that is a good move, just to get his career back on track after a poor spell with PSV.