“Under-23s football is not the real world.”

So said Dan Nlundulu as he stepped out of the academy bubble at Southampton for the first time in the summer of 2021 at Lincoln City.

He would get a quick introduction into the harsh realities of senior football, sent on for his Imps debut after they had fallen behind at home to Wanderers with 10 minutes to go.

Antoni Sarcevic’s goal would remain the decisive one on the night, and folk at Sincil Bank might argue that Nlundulu’s time in Lincolnshire would not improve much over the next six months.

He had arrived with a recommendation from Southampton legend Matt le Tissier, a man who should know his mercurial strikers even if his validation may not carry the cache that it once did.

“I think there’s potential there,” Le Tissier told LincolnshireLive. “There are bits of his game that need tidying up, but he’s got a lot of good attributes. If he learns how to use them properly, he’ll be a useful player and he can do a job for Lincoln. The experience will benefit him greatly as well.”

Alas, the move never looked a great fit. Minor hamstring problems accompanied trouble gelling with a team that was frighteningly inconsistent. And though he did score a winning goal at Wigan Athletic a dozen appearances into his time at Lincoln, there was little else to celebrate, and by January Southampton had called their player back to St Mary’s.

At that stage it may have been easy for Nlundulu to sink back into the warm bosom of development football to regain the confidence which had been rocked at Lincoln. But the young striker seemed eager to subject himself to more life lessons, leaving Southampton once again to spend the rest of the season at Cheltenham Town.

Unfortunately, another hamstring injury limited him to just a handful of appearances and it was not until a second loan spell was organised that he was able to gain regular football for the Robins, leading their line for most of the season – often without talented foil, Alfie May.

Cheltenham leaned heavily on him for inspiration, and the stats paint a picture of hard graft. Nlundulu has scored five goals in a team which ranks bottom six for chance creation, shots on goal and possession.

Individual numbers also show there is a degree of rawness to be ironed out in his game, particularly out of possession, where he will be expected to participate in League One’s most aggressive press.

But there have also been moments this season where he talent has been impossible to miss, not least when Cheltenham flattened Wanderers at Whaddon Road back in October, an evening where he looked one of the best players on the park.

And it is the untapped potential that Ian Evatt is backing himself to reveal.

Though born in France, Nlundulu grew up in England and represented the country twice at Under-16s level whilst on the books at Chelsea. There he played alongside the likes of Mason Mount, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Trevoh Chalobah and Japhet Tanganga, scoring on his first appearance against Belgium at St George’s Park.

Nlundulu bounced up the age groups after moving to Southampton at the age of 13 and shortly after graduating from the Under-18s caught the eye of first team boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, who included him in the senior group for a pre-season trip of Austria.

By 2020 he was regularly being used as a Premier League substitute, featuring against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, and scoring a first senior goal for the Saints in his first full start during an FA Cup game against Shrewsbury Town.

Wanderers will hope, having earned his spurs at Lincoln and Cheltenham, that Nlundulu is now ready to show that potential in an environment closer to that which he grew up in at Chelsea and Southampton.

There will be doubters to win over – but that is par for the course for anyone who walks through the doors of the University of Bolton Stadium these days. We are a hard bunch to please.

But if Evatt and Wanderers can refine Nlundulu’s directness, dribbling ability and power, then this could be a profitable move for all involved.