He didn't get a goal for Saints, but it seems that on the Continent Paul Onauchu is not short of admirers and he looks set to become one of the first players to exit St Mary's this summer, heading to Germany if reports are to be believed.

Tall Paul Onauchu is off to Germany according to Sportwitness, who claim that Schalke have won the race to sign him ahead of Borussia Monchengladbach.

The website are quoting journalist Sacho Tavolieri: who states

"they are ‘set to’ secure Onuachu’s signature and sign him on loan from Southampton for the season with an option to make the move a permanent one."

The two clubs are currently working on the ‘last details’ of that move but it appears the major parts are done, and he will be bringing his short and miserable stint at St Mary’s to an end."

As I said in an earlier article this morning, I felt that the club were in no hurry to keep Onauchu next season, they felt that his short spell at the club had not been a success.

Under Nathan Jones he would make just 2 appearances in the Premier League, as a half time substitute at Brentford and then in the starting line up the following week against Wolves.

Ruben Selles would start him in his first two games, Chelsea and Leeds United both away, but although he showed a little promise in the game at Stamford Bridge, at Leeds he was nondescript and all but one of the rest of his season would be from off the bench, his final game of the season being against Fulham where although he was started he would be subbed on the hour mark.

Of his 4 starts and 7 sub appearances just about his only meaningful contributions were a header past the post at Chelsea and a late header against West Ham.

From a Saints perspective they would appear to favour a clean break, but the issue is that firstly Onauchu was a January panic buy, when he signed for Saints according to Transfermarkt his value was around £15 million Euros with Saints paying 18 Million Euros for his services.

As of today his value is given as 13 million Euros, although that is a 5 million Euro reduction, Saints would prefer to get that amount and write off the experience.

However that seems unlikely to happen and clearly Saints rate him so low they are not even contemplating giving him a chance in the Championship, instead loaning him out for a fee and getting his wages off the books for a season, hoping that he may do well in Germany and prompt Schalke to invoke their option to buy clause.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 15:58 - Jun 30 As you have already posted Nick, square pegs round holes, square holes round pegs or whatever he just doesn't have the quick control and movement demanded by the way we seem destined to play this season. Hopefully he'll get his confidence back at a club that will use his attributes.
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zonehead added 17:46 - Jun 30 A 7 foot centre forward , JWP one of the best crossers it should have been a no brainier, but I’m no coach.
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Ifonly added 18:14 - Jun 30 Good luck to tall Paul. Hopefully the manager at Schalke will have a clue how to use him, unlike Selles who clearly didn't. He's not the greatest player in the world but I'm sure there's a useful CF in there for whichever team will actually give him some crosses. Given that most of our forwards provided absolutely no goal threat last season, and if we just carried on as we were then we were obviously doomed, it's a shame we never tried this tactic.

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Big_T added 18:22 - Jun 30 When we only have two players who can remotely be classed as crossers of the ball, one plays centrally (JWP) and the other only played 700 min ( 7.8 games ) djenepo . Then a player who relies on quick accurate crosses doesn't stand a chance. ( and yes those two are the only saints players with crossing stats over 30% , the rest of the squad are under 15% for crossing ) Maybe that is something our new coaches should work on ? A squad of 30 that can't cross a ball between them , shocking !

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underweststand added 14:02 - Jul 3 If he finds a good move in Europe he will undoubtedly return to the goal-scoring form he had in Belgium, and our only hope is that we can get some decent return on the deal that provided almost nothing in his brief stay with Saints .
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