Today's Southampton transfer news has revealed potentially bad news for Paul Onuachu. The Nigeria striker will not move to Trabzonspor in January.
Paul Onuachu is a rather difficult story to unravel. On paper, he should be Southampton's main man. He is a prolific striker with a proven track record of bagging goals in other leagues. For crying out loud, he is even a Puskas nominee!
Yet, he hasn't been given a chance to prove himself in Southampton red and white. Admittedly, injuries haven't helped his case but also, his playing style does not align with Russell Martin's possession-based approach.
So, will Paul Onuachu return to Trabzonspor in the January transfer window? The answer is no.
According to Ertugrul Dogan (Trabzonspor club president) via Taka Gazete, the "economic realities" do not allow Trabzonspor to sign Paul Onuachu - In other words, they cannot afford him.
Dogan claims that Onuachu was happy at Trabzonspor. They even tried to sign him in the summer transfer window but Southampton did not accept their highest possible fee.
In his own words (translated to English), Dogan said: “At the beginning of the season, we made an offer for Paul Onuachu at the highest level we could but [Southampton] did not accept this offer."
Dogan concluded: “There are certain realities of life and, right now, Trabzonspor is not in a position to make a transfer by paying a transfer fee of 15 million euros. Onuachu was happy at Trabzonspor, but it is not possible for us to make the transfer in line with these economic realities.”
Between now and January, Paul Onuachu will hope to have more of an impact at Southampton. By this point, he should be the main-man, however, as mentioned there have been complications which have prevented this from happening.
If Southampton want to get the best out of Onuachu, Russell Martin must be open to new tactical possibilities. It has been claimed that Martin wants to protect his tactical legacy but for the sake of Southampton staying up, this just won't sit well.
To benefit Onuachu, Southampton simply need to feed balls into the box. He is known as Tall Paul for this exact reason - He can beat defenders in the box, which could be the difference between Southampton staying up and going down.
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