Genk striker Paul Onuachu has said that a transfer to Wolves ‘didn’t materialise’ this summer.
The Nigeria international was reportedly one of a host of names on Wanderers’ shortlist of strikers.
The club were looking to bring in a new centre-forward after loaning out Fabio Silva. Raul Jimenez also entered the 2022/23 season with an injury, which he is still struggling with.
Wolves actually ended up signing Sasa Kalajdzic from Stuttgart. But the star suffered an ACL injury on his debut for the club against Southampton.
So Wolves had to raid the free agent market, and signed former Chelsea striker Diego Costa.
Onuachu has suggested that Wolves did actually consider signing him before making a move for Kalajdzic.
He told Belgian outlet HLN: “To be honest, I am tired of talking about transfers. Wolverhampton, 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 transfer-free players and ended up with Diego Costa. That’s football, eh.”
There will now be some people out there questioning why Wolves opted for Kalajdzic over Onuachu.
Onuachu has scored 68 goals in 117 games for Genk so far.
And importantly, his injury record is much better than Kalajdzic’s.
But Wolves decided to press ahead with the Kalajdzic deal (for an initial £15 million – Daily Mail), and it remains to be seen if his replacement Costa will be able to have a positive impact.
Time will tell if Wolves made a big mistake not pushing hard for Paul Onuachu
The injury to Kalajdzic was massively unfortunate. But Wanderers did also know the player had a history of knee injuries.
The club took a risk, and now they’ve had to bring in Costa, which is also a big risk considering his lack of football recently and the fact he turns 34 next month.
With Jimenez still struggling, it’s possible Wolves’ goalscoring issues could persist throughout this season.
Onuachu is a goalscorer with a pretty good injury record. And so, it remains to be seen if Wolves will be punished for not signing him over Kalajdzic.