He was seen at the time of his arrival as the saviour of Saint season in January 2023 with the team in the relegation zone, but things would not get better the club and player, now he has spoken out about his time at St Mary's.

There is mileage in the theory that Paul Onuachu was one of the worst signings made by the club when you weigh up his transfer fee and the contributions he made on the pitch.

However there were quite a few things happening at Southampton FC that the player could use to mitigate just why things didn't work out for him at St Mary's

When he joined the club manager Nathan Jones, who himself had only been at the club for a couple of months himself was sacked and Ruben Selles and inexperienced coach put in his place and things went from bad to worse.

Onuachu would fail to score in his 11 appearances and to be blunt didn't manager an assist and perhaps just one chance on goal where he actually looked like scoring, it was that bad, but was it all his fault ?

insidefootball,com has revealed that he was aware of the risk of joining Saints and feels the managerial changes and system did not suit him at St Mary’s.

He pointed out that several managerial changes and constantly needing to adapt to new systems are some of the reasons he struggled at St Mary’s and feels that a player should always need to have a clear idea of the way a club operate before he joins them.

“There are moments in football when things do not go well”, Onuachu was quoted as saying by Turkish outlet Gunebakis.

“For me, the Southampton period was one of those times.

“First of all, the transfer happened in January.

“I do not regret any of the decisions I have made, but sometimes there are questions you need to ask before signing for a club.

“You need to find out whether the system they play suits you.

“Personally, I had won everything there was to win in Belgium, and I felt that was enough. It was time to try something different.

“It was the Premier League. I knew the team’s chances of staying in the league or being relegated were 50-50, but sometimes you take a risk and then see whether it works.

“I took the risk, and it did not work.

“There were several managerial changes and systems that did not suit me.

“Maybe I am looking for excuses, but sometimes, if you want to join a team, you need to ask very carefully about the system, how things operate at the club and everything else.”

You can sympathise a little bit with Onuachu for his predicament, but he did himself no favours not only on the pitch in those 11 games, in which he started only 4 of them, came on as sub 7 times and was an unused sub another 4 and towards the end of the season did not even make the squad.

What perhaps galled was that his reaction to the relegation was not to pledge his allegiance to the club and his ambition to help them get back to the Premier League, but to want to move away on loan, he didn't want to play for Southampton, but he did not want a permanent move either, because it would have meant a drop in wages,

A successful season on loan at Trabzonspor should have meant that a permanent deal would follow, but the Turkish club were not willing to pay anything near his transfer value or his wages, they preferred to try and force another cut price loan move.

That didn't happen and he was forced to stay at St Mary's with the club now back in the Premier League.

Initially he could not get in the squad and he would not feature to early October in a defeat at Arsenal, he ran about a lot and won a few tackles on the half way line, but it was clear that his positional play was lacking something.

As Russell Martin was sacked and ivan Juric took over he got more of a chance and he would end the season with 11 starts and 14 appearances off the bench, he would even score, netting 4 times and even an assist, but it was too little too late.

Finally last summer Saints got shot of him to Trabzonspor, with a year left on his contract both player, Southampton and Trabzonspor could loosen their demands and he was sold for a loss of around £10 million, although some of that may have been reduced by loan fees.

All in all his time here was a disaster, but was he the worst centre forward that we have had at the club ?

If we take into account the transfer fee and his contributions to our cause, there is a case for that and it is being debates on the Ugly Inside message board now, give your opinion at Worst Ever Saints Centre Forward

Via Reuters