Paul Onuachu’s £18 million January switch from Genk to Southampton is one of those transfers that, if things do not go to plan, could end up becoming pretty miserable for all involved. The Saints, bottom of the table and seeing talks with their top managerial target Jesse Marsch break down, are staring down the barrel of the Championship.
As for Onuachu’s former employers, a six-point gap between Genk and second-place Union Saint-Gilloise will be eaten up rather quickly if the Jupiler League leaders cannot immediately adapt to life without their talismanic top scorer.
“You should not underestimate the impact (of selling Onuachu),” former Belgium international Marc Degryse argues in HLN. “He was the top scorer. He guaranteed 20 to 30 goals every year.
“The competition will not mind Onuachu’s departure. Yes, this could cost Genk the title.”
Onuachu, since the start of 2020/21, scored 75 goals in 102 appearances. 17 of those came during the first half of this season. Compare that to the man who will now step into his speedboat-sized shoes at the Luminus Arena.
Genk will need to replace Southampton’s Paul Onuachu
Yes, Mbwana Samatta has not exactly been a regular starter since arriving on loan from Fenerbahce. But, still, a tally of one goal in 19 games will not calm the concerns of Genk supporters fearing that Onuachu’s departure could, as Degryse predicts, ‘cost them the title’.
“You have to deal with Samatta, because he is the starter now. But he will not become Onuachu,” Degryse adds. “Things can still go wrong for Genk. Because, in the meantime, Union Saint-Gilloise has made further progress.”
Samatta was a prolific goalscorer during his first spell at Genk, netting 32 in 2018/19 alone. But if that £10 million move to Aston Villa in January 2020 was supposed to the beginning of Samatta’s emergence as an elite-level ‘number nine’, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
There has been just 20 goals in his last 107 games; spells at Villa, Fenerbahce and Royal Antwerp ending in disappointment. That return to Genk, it seems, was made more in hope than expectation.
But Onuachu’s departure may be the opportunity Samatta has been waiting for. What better way to announce his rebirth than by rolling back the years and firing Genk to another Jupiler League?
“In attack, Onuachu is missed,” reporter Peter Vandenbempt sighs (Radio1).
“Samatta did not play without merit. But he is not the Samatta from his first spell at Genk. The striker simply does not have the stature, presence, weight and scoring ability of Onuachu.”
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