It was a dramatic day on the last day of the Jupilo League in Belgium with Royal Antwerp ending with a bang to snatch the title from the hands of Southampton's January signing Paul Onauchu's former club Genk. We ask what now for the Saints striker.

When Paul Onauchu left Genk in January, it was a controversial decision to sell him to Southampton, with 18 goals in the Jupilo League he had powered his club to the top of the Jupilo League and the fans were angered at what they say as their club putting money ahead of winning the league.

It was a dramatic ending to the season that went to the final minutes, Genk were the outsiders although they hosted Royal Antwerp and favourites were Union Saint-Gilloise.

As the games entered the last minute Genk were beating Antwerp 2-1, but they were being edged off the top spot by USG who were winning 3-1 at Club Brugge.

But suddenly things changed as long as Union were winning and Antwerp were behind, the title was heading to the Brussels-based USG, but in the 89th minute Brugge equalised and Genk were top of the league as long as they held on.

That would not be the case as up popped former Saints loanee Toby Alderweireld in the 5th minute of injury time just as Genk were starting to believe they were Champions to snatch an equaliser and in doing so win the title for his club Royal Antwerp.

Paul Onauchu having played the first half of the season for Genk would have been hoping that they would win the League and not only would he receive a winners medal, but it would soften the blow for the Genk supporters who had seen their team drop from a leading position when Tall Paul left for Southampton.

The recriminations are already starting for Genk and analysts at Het Laaste Nieuws has been quick to suggest that the sale of Onauchu was a bad move for genk and the player himself.

Hein Vanhaezebrouck does not understand why Onuachu chose to leave Genk for Southampton.

"That was definitely not a good choice," You don't go to the team that is last in the Premier League, do you? At the risk of ending up in the Championship."

A colleague also agrees.

"Did Onuachu really think he was going to keep Southampton in the Premier League," he said. "And for what? 18 million euros? For a Premier League club, that's just feeling in the inside pocket."

According to Arnar Vidarsson, things will not get any easier next season

"It turned out to be a bad choice for both the player and Genk. Now next season he has to play against defenders who love nothing more than to be against that type of striker,"

So it was not a good week for Paul Onauchu and he must surely regret his move to St Mary's failing to score in 11 League games, although he came close on several occasions and you felt that had he got a goal, it might have kick started a run for him and it could have fired Saints to safety.

But it was not to be and now he is at a crossroads, he will undoubtably be on far more money at St Mary's than he would get back in Belgium, indeed perhaps any other European League.

Given his failure for Southampton it is not likely that a Premier League club or indeed a club in Europe would be willing to take a punt in getting anywhere near paying the £16 million or so that Saints paid for his services or for that matter his wages.

So what does next season hold for him, do Saints keep faith and hope that in the Championship he might well be a goal threat, Arnar Vidarrson has a point when he says that defenders in the Championship love playing against his type of player, but that does not mean that they will be able to stop him.

The other option is that Onauchu leaves the club next season, given his wages that is not likely to be on a permanent basis, so that might see him out on loan, a situation that we have seen a lot at St Mary's in the last 5 years or so with the likes of Moi Elyounoussi and Mario Lemina etc all spending extended periods away from the club on loan.

I would suggest that giving him the opportunity to show he can be the man to fire us back up at the first attempt would be a good thing, hopefully he will show in pre season he is worth keeping and then in the weeks after the Championship season starts and before the transfer window closes, he will prove that he can be a force in second tier of English football.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 11:11 - Jun 6 Would there not have been a relegation clause relating to wages? Tall Paul's signing benefited no one other than Antwerp. To have had any chance of 'saving' us he would have had to have been in the team from the start, persevered with and played to. None of that happened. Instead our abiding memory of him will be his hapless performance at Arsenal, when with hardly any football under his belt he was asked to do something he was totally unsuited to. I don't know how strong the Belgian top division is compared to where we will be next season - it's quite possible that if used properly he could flourish - I expect he will go out on loan though.

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SaintPaulVW added 11:53 - Jun 6 This must surely be one of the worst football transfers ever for all parties, left a side in with a shout for the title, who then missed out, to join a side bottom of another league, who were then relegated, to play for a manager who stubbornly set up the side to play in completely the wrong style for him. If we aren't going to play a style that suits him, and RM and his love of passing suggests we aren't, then we should just put us all out of our misery and sell him for what we can get for him.

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SaintNick added 12:28 - Jun 6 San Marco, there is a perception that Onauchu never got a chance to start games, but the reality is different, He made his debut coming on at half time at Brentford on 4th Feb, a reasonable decision to start him on the bench, He then started the next 3 games. Wolves at home and then Chelsea and Leeds away, so he was given a fair crack of the whip in his first 4 games in the Premier League, in fairness he had a reasonable chance at Chelsea, but that was about it. In his 5th game he was an unused sub, a 1-0 win over Leicester and under Ruben Selles he was not first choice, two sub appearances at Man Utd and then at home to Brentford, saw him get around 30 mins on the pitch in total but little product. At West Ham he did have a decent chance, but by now the pattern had been set there were moments when he would get a chance, but they were few and far between, Truth is it looked like Nathan Jones was going to go for wingers and Onauchu in the January window, but his sacking changed the tactics again

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Ifonly added 12:46 - Jun 6 No he was never given a chance because Ruben never played a style that suited him. Ruben didn't want that type of player. Tall Paul needed crosses. That's the whole point of him. Yet you could count the number of crosses he was given on the fingers of one hand - and that's in total across all his games. Ruben just didn't play that way. Under Jones he would have been given that chance. Whether that would have worked for him we'll never know. Saints messed up badly here. He was recruited for Jones then immediately that happened, Saints lost courage in making a change away from the Ralph style and asked Ruben to take us back to it (that flip flopping was recently confirmed by Ankerson). Tall Paul was left in the cold. As for next season he'll be out on loan at a loss for Saints because he probably wont fit in with the Russell Martin style either. Saints will have to swallow that loss. That's the cost of not knowing what you're doing.

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SanMarco added 14:17 - Jun 6 Thanks Nick - I'd forgotten he started quite that many. Certainly the whole Jones fiasco didn't help...
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