After two years of trying to offload Tall Paul Onuachu, Southampton seem set to finally move the striker out of the club with Trabzonspor in negotiations with Saints according to reports from Turkey.
insidefutbol.com are claiming that Southampton are on the verge of agreeing a deal with Trabzonspor for Tall Paul Onuachu.
The striker spent 2023/24 season on loan with the Turkish club scoring 17 goals and 4 assists.
Trabzonspor tried to make the deal permanent last summer but negotiations faltered as they were not realistic in their offer for the player, with offers around half of Onuachu's valuation, something that Saints were not prepared to except and so they held firm and the striker spent the first couple of months of the season not playing a game.
He eventually got into the Saints squad in October, but it would be 3 months and it would be his 12th Premier League appearance before he would score his first goal, he ended the season with a total of 4.
Now though as he enters the last year of his contract it seems that both Saints and Trabzonspor are nearer in their valuation of the player.
Southampton signed him for around £15 million in January 2023 but by the summer of 2024 his value had dropped to around £10 million but Trabzonspor and other Turkish clubs were trying to get him on the cheap and were offering around £5-6 million, that was not acceptable for Saints who were not willing to be ripped off by clubs who were assuming they would cave in and sell cheaply.
There was also the small matter of Onuachu's wages, he was on a decent salary at St Mary's and Turkish club's don't pay that much unless it is a very special player.
They may now regret their frugalness, in 2023/24 with Onuachu they had finished 3rd in the Turkish Super League, last season without him in 2024/25 they finished 7th, only 1 point above Sports Republic's Turkish club Goztepe.
So it was stalemate a year ago, but now with year left on his contract and his value having plummeted it is a different matter.
His value now is barely £5 million and that is the starting point for Saints, although Trabzonspor have still tried to get him on the cheap, offering around £3.3 million to secure his services.
However it seems that both clubs are now want to do the deal and it is suggested that the deal is likely to be done for a fee somewhere around the halfway mark between the Trabzonspor offer and Southampton's valuation.
It will be a loss for Saints, although the fact that they would have saved around £3 million in wages etc during his loan spell in Turkey in 2023/24 will have reduced down Saints losses on the purchase price in 2023.
Hopefully this will be a satisfactory ending for all parties, Southampton will not only get a few million in the transfer kitty to improve the squad for next season, but will also get his salary off the wage books for the following year, Trabzonspor will have got their man for the low price that they felt.
For Tall Paul, well he will finally get a permanent move to Turkey, to be blunt he was not Premier League standard, yes he has those who will point to the the four goals he scored being a good return for the number of games he played, but overall he wasn't up to Premier League football where it is not enough to just slot in a goal or two without contributing elsewhere.
Good luck to Tall Paul, whatever your opinion on him, you cannot accuse him of a lack of effort, whenever he played he gave 100% and it was not him holding up the deal last summer through unrealistic wage demands, he cannot be blamed that the club's trying to buy him were not willing to pay a fee that reflected his value.