After a sluggish, injury-hit start to the new campaign, Paul Onuachu took his tally to four goals in just 176 minutes (or three games, if you will) with a first-half winner during Genk’s 1-0 victory over OH Leuven this weekend.
And if this sky-scraping, man-mountain of a centre-forward wanted to show what Wolverhampton Wanderers were missing – the Premier League outfit having decided against bringing Onuachu to Molineux during the summer transfer window – then he’s certainly going about things in precisely the right way.
Four goals in three games. As many as Wolves’ entire squad have managed between them across 10 Premier League games so far this term. Suddenly, the chances of Onuachu matching his 23-goal tally from 2021/22 do not look quite so slim.
“To be honest, I am tired of talking about transfers,” Onuachu sighed back in September. “Wolverhampton (showed an interest), but it didn’t materialise. They went for another. He apparently injured himself badly in his first match.
“The English transfer market had closed by then. So, they could only get free-agents and ended up with Diego Costa. That’s football, eh.”
Wolves chose Sasa Kalajdzic over Genk talisman Paul Onuachu
Sasa Kalajdzic, rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament after just one half of football in Wolves colours, is unlikely to be seen again this season. And with Raul Jimenez enduring fitness problems of his own, whoever takes Bruno Lage’s place on the Wolves bench – be it Nuno Espirito Santo, Rob Edwards, Bo Svensson or another candidate – will have little choice but to rest on the fading talents of a battle-scarred, 30-something Diego Costa as the Premier League’s lowest scorers look to claw their way up the table.
Wolves will be hoping that, like Onuachu, Diego Costa can prove that his class remains permanent.
“My candle was out. (But) I notice in myself that I am gradually getting back on track, and that I am almost at 100 per cent,” a re-energised Onuachu tells HLN after an admittedly rather-fortunate decider at Leuven’s Den Dreef ground.
“Everyone knows that the box is my natural habitat. But I also have to be present outside it. That is getting better and better.”
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
