While there were reports of a potential move for Goncalo Ramos or Cody Gakpo in the summer, only Sekou Mara arrived to bolster Ralph Hasenhuttl’s forward line. And in January once again Saints struggled to sign a truly elite number nine until deadline day when they brought in Paul Onuachu from Genk for a fee in the region of £18m. The towering striker had scored 70 league goals in the previous two-and-a-half seasons in the Belgian top flight but he has failed to find the net since moving to St Mary’s. Meanwhile, his opportunities have almost completely dried up under Ruben Selles, starting just one of his side’s last 13 league matches. Asked by the Daily Echo why it hasn’t worked out for Onuachu, Selles conceded that the change in manager following Nathan Jones’s sacking ‘probably’ hasn’t helped the Nigerian.
Ruben Selles said: “I think sometimes it’s difficult to come straight to the Premier League and it’s hard to score goals especially in that position. There are some key positions where you need to be more exposed than the others and that’s the number nine position. Probably the change in manager didn’t benefit him, we went some places that we didn’t go before. That’s mainly it. Usually when you get a player from the Belgian league or the French league, unless the team is very structured then they need time to adapt. And that’s what happened. He probably has a different opinion but that’s my opinion.”
Selles also admitted that if he would have ‘absolutely’ approached the January transfer window differently had he been manager at the time. Asked to clarify what that could have looked like,
Ruben Selles said: “We are just going to speculate about that. If you ask me would I do it in a different way, definitely I would do it in a different way. To speculate about what we would do, what kind of player, I don’t think we’d go anywhere with that question.”
Saints dismal season will finally come to an end on Sunday when they host Liverpool at St Mary’s. Both their relegation and last-place finish have already been confirmed.
