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Saints Forward Commits Himself To The Club Next Season

At a time when several of our underperformers were more concerned about their next move than battling for survival, some of our players have been more concerned with making amends.

A lot of Saints fans have already been talking about what we need to get out of the Championship next season in an upwards direction.

Most of them are agreed on one thing, that is we need to get in some players who have experience in the Championship and more to the point are proven at it.

The name on some lips is Nathan Tella who after getting only 1 goal in 33 Premier League games including 17 starts for Southampton, only managed a single goal.

The cry is bring him back to St Mary's after a season on loan with Burnley that has seen him score 17 goals.

The dilemma for Saints is that his stock is high, with two years on his contract some good youngsters on the books,, do they risk keep him and risk him not repeating this seasons tally and leave cheaply next summer or do they cash in now.

But if they want a man proven in scoring goals in the Championship, then they already have that man on their books, when they signed Adam Armstrong two years ago, he had scored 28 goals for Blackburn Rovers prompting Saints to sign him, the previous season he had netted 16, as a youngster on loan at Coventry, he netted 20 goals in League One.

We have just what we need already on our books and whilst he might not have quite cut it in scoring at Premier League level, he can certainly do it at the level we need next season.

Indeed when assessing who stays and go we have to be pragmatic, the fact that some players didn't cut it in the Premier League this season, does not mean they will be just as bad in the Championship. One player who may benefit could be James Bree, a Nathan Jones panic by, he was damned by association, but he could be vital at Championship level.

But a big key could be Adam Armstrong , he has been linked with several clubs for next season, but he has already spoken of how he wants to stay at St Mary's and help the club back into the Premier League and he could save us a big fee that even a Championship goal scorer commands these days.

Whilst Armstrong has shown his goal scoring prowess only rarely, it could also be said that for most of his two seasons he has rarely been used as a central striker, he has been used as more of a winger and to be blunt he was no worse than most of the other candidates for that position.

No one could accuse Armstrong of lacking work rate, he played were chosen and put 100% in every game, his detractors will point to his goal record, but that is in the Premier League, now we are in a League where he is proven.

This season's Championship top scorer Chuba Akpom scored 28, the 2nd leading scorer got 21, that puts in perspective how difficult it is to score even at that level.

In the next few weeks we will learn who wants to go and who wants to stay, we should judge each on his own merits and in the case of Adam Armstrong he is a player who is proven doing the job at the level we need him to do it next season, he ticks all the boxes.

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