Tag: Onuachu

Paul Onuachu is ‘devastated’ as his return to KRC Genk from Championship outfit Southampton fell through, according to Belgian reporter Sacha Tavolieri.

While Moussa Djenepo closes in on a return to Standard Liege – Southampton accepting a £3m bid for a player yet to make a single league appearance under Russell Martin – there will be no easy escape for another Jupiler League import tumbling down the pecking order at St Mary’s.

Paul Onuachu only arrived in January to the tune of £18m.

The sky-scraping striker’s Premier League dream soon turned into a nightmare, however; failing to score a single goal as Southampton finished bottom of the table. When he put pen to paper on a big-money deal eight months ago, it’s hard to imagine that Onuachu was expecting to find himself becoming something of a ‘persona non grata’ at a second-tier Saints side by September.

Read Also: Onuachu set to join Metz on loan from Southampton

Onuachu has not even been included in one of Martin’s matchday squads so far. And with a return to his former employers falling through, the towering Nigeria international is facing up to the prospect of another few months collecting cobwebs on the sidelines

 “Confirmed. (Onuachu’s move from Southampton to Genk is) off,” Tavolieri writes on Twitter. “Been told the player was devastated.”

Onuachu played the best football of his career at Genk, scoring 85 goals in 134 games. 35 of those came in the 2020/21 season alone. Since his departure, Genk missed out on the Jupiler League title by a single point to Royal Antwerp and were also knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by surprise packages Servette, an absence of reliable goalscorers in the post-Onuachu era a common source of consternation.

Southampton were linked with a swap deal which would have seen Joseph Paintsil join from Genk; Onuachu going in the other direction. Negotiations over a proposed agreement failed to progress, however.

With the Saudi Arabian and Turkish windows still open, there are still potential exit routes available to Onuachu for the time being.

There are strong indications that Southampton striker Paul Onuachu could still join former club Genk this week, with the Belgian transfer window still open, according to Voetbal Nieuws, via Sport Witness.

The 29-year-old only joined the Saints in February, but has endured a nightmare time on the south coast.

He has failed to score in his 12 appearances to date and has been left on the fringes of the squad since Southampton’s relegation to the Championship.

The Nigerian international’s only outing this season came as a substitute in the Carabao Cup defeat against Gillingham last month and he has failed to make the matchday squad in all five of their opening league fixtures.

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As a result, Onuachu has been consistently linked with a move away from the club and Genk were thought to be leading the race to bring him back to the club where he hit a staggering 85 goals in 134 appearances.

There were talks of a swap deal involving Ghana international Joseph Paintsil last week, but the winger was not keen on the switch to the Championship. According to reports from Belgium, Genk have still not given up hope on bringing the player back to the club, with their transfer window remaining open until September 6th .

However, it does look unlikely at this stage, although it is claimed that there is still a chance that the difference in valuations between the two clubs ‘can be bridged’.

Genk finished runners up in last season’s Belgian Pro League and have started this season with two wins, a draw and a defeat.

Paul Onuachu is set to join Ligue 1 outfit Metz on loan from Southampton before the end of the Friday’s summer transfe,  reports Soccernet.ng

The 29-year-old joined Southampton for £18m from Belgian Pro League side KRC Genk in January.

But has failed to settle down at the St Mary’s Stadium, scoring no goal in his first 11 League appearances before the club suffered relegation to the Championship at the end of the campaign.

Read Also: Onuachu keen on Genk return

Before his move to Southampton, Onuachu was on a good run of form in the first part of the 2022/23 season, bagging 16 goals from 19 games, and a total of 85 goals in 134 appearances in his four-year stay with the Belgian club.

However, the Nigerian International is set to leave St Mary’s Stadium on a year loan to join Ligue 1 side Metz, with the deal expected to be completed in the coming hours before the transfer deadline at 11 pm on Friday(today), as reported by L’Equipe

Paul Onuachu is still very much open to return to Genk, but this transfer may have to go down to Deadline Day.

Onuachu moved to England in January, but Southampton have since been relegated from the Premier League and the 29-year-old striker does not wish to play in the second-tier English Championship.

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The Saints though will want to recoup a substantial part of the 18 Million Euros they paid for him.

Meanwhile, a swap deal that would have seen Ghana international winger Joseph Paintsil move in the opposite direction to the English club has collapsed.

Paintsil is not interested in a move to England and it has now been understood that he has asked Saudi Arabian club Al Wehda for an annual salary of Four Million Euros-a-year.

Al Wehda have proposed a salary of 3M Euros for the right winger, while Genk have rejected a 6 m Euros bid from the Saudis for the player.

Southampton and Belgian club Genk are still in talks over a potential swap deal that would see Paul Onuachu return to the Cegeka Arena, according to reports.

Onuachu was one of the most in-form centre-forwards in European football during his time in Belgium, especially in the 2020/21 campaign where he bagged 35 goals in 41 games in all competitions, with 33 coming in the league. This is a record for the Belgian Pro League.

Over the course of three and a half seasons with Genk, the Nigeria international scored 85 times and earned a whopping £18.6 million move to Premier League strugglers Southampton in the hopes of turning their fortunes around.

Unfortunately, Onuachu has never got going with the Saints and has yet to score a single goal since joining the club in January 2023, featuring twelve times in total across three separate managers.

It was reported last week by journalist Sacha Tavolieri that Southampton were working on a swap deal with Genk which would see Onuachu head back to the club where he excelled. Meanwhile, the deal would see Ghanaian winger Joseph Paintsil head over to the English South Coast.

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The saga went quiet for eight days, prompting Tavolieri to add last night that any potential move was ‘not totally over’.

Painstil had an excellent individual campaign last season, scoring 17 goals and registering 11 assists and now could be on his way to the St. Mary’s Stadium should a swap deal come to fruition.

This deal makes sense given Onuachu’s struggle for minutes at Southampton and to adapt to English football, although there will be a question mark over whether Paintsil will fare any better than his former Genk teammate who will be going in the opposite direction.

Danish champions FC  Midtjylland have rejected an enquiry from Hobro to sign Olympic National Team striker Paul Onuachu this summer.

In the winter transfer market, Hobro attempted to sign the lanky forward but FCM refused to loan him out to a rival team and he ended up in First Division club Vejle.

“I have spoken with Midtjylland and they do not want to release Paul, when they will also now be out to play Champions League qualification,” coach of Hobro Jonas Dal told Nordjyske.

“Unless they get another striker in, we must focus on finding our attack somewhere else.”

Paul Onuachu scored 5 goals in 13 games for Vejle in the second – tier last term.

Nigeria U-23 striker Paul Onuachu continued his impressive display in front of goal for his Danish team Vejle Boldklub when he scored a brace in a 2-2 draw at AC Horsen yesterday.

He has now scored five goals in 12 games in the league, four coming from his last four games.

Vejle are fifth on the league table with 42 points from 32 games.

Onuachu, opened the scoring in the 39th minute to give his team 1-0 lead, he went on to savage a point for his team with the equaliser four minutes to the end of the game.