The long drawn out saga of Paul Onuachu is about to come to an end, as news comes out of Turkey that Saints have finally agreed a fee with Trabzonspor and the player will make the move just before the Turkish transfer window slams shut.
it appears that we are about to wave goodbye to Paul Onuachu some 20 months after he first arrived from Genk in the hope that he would be the man that would fire us to safety in our relegation battle.
But fate would deal him a cruel blow, Nathan Jones was sacked shortly after he arrived and temporary replacement Ruben Selles had different ideas about how he wanted to play the game.
I don't think anyonce can accuse Tall Paul of a lack of effort, he had a decent game in Selles first game in charge, a 1-0 win at Chelsea, but after that he struggled a little, although he nearly equalised away to West Ham with a thumping header.
When Russell Martin arrived, he was never going to suit his type of game and he was loaned out to Trabzonspor who clearly liked the contribution he made of with 15 goals in 21 League games.
However not enough to offer a reasonable fee for him this summer and the saga dragged on as the Turkish club put in derisory offers of around £5 million for a player who had cost around £16 million just 18 months earlier.
Now with the Turkish transfer window about to close it seems they have got serious and upped the ante to somewhere nearer the £10 million that Southampton were seeking.
The reports from Turkey are suggesting that the fee is going to be somewhere between £8-9 million, although it is not clear yet what over clauses are in the contract, ie appearance based add ons or sell on profits etc.
So the sorry tale is about to come to an end, in truth although Tall Paul did little to really push for a place in our starting line up, as I mentioned earlier that was not entirely his fault.
We are cutting our losses and putting the money in the kitty for January.
Good luck Tall Paul for the rest of your career, you didn't give us much, but for a few games you did give us hope.