| Downs and out? on 10:04 - Sep 1 by SaintNick |
I have posted this as a reply to the first post, so i cannot be accused of picking on anyone lol.
I am sure Southampton have a very good scouting system, after all its the very same system who found the unknown Sporting Lisbon fringe player for around £12 million and he was sold for a £30 million profit.
Throughout the years I have followed Saints most seasons have seen good signings and also bad signings, Lawrie McMenemy will be remembered for signing Kevin Keegan in the summer of 1980, no one remembers the other player he signed that summer, Mike McCartney, or when we signed Mark Wright & Keith Cassells in 1982, Kenny Armstrong in 1983.
For every good signing there is a bad one.
But I agree we need to revamp our current system.
1. Install a big red button in all the seats in St Mary's.
2. In future initially only sign players on a two week loan deal.
3. Let the fans vote on a player after their second game for the club whether we need to keep him or whether he should be sent back by pressing their red button.
I cannot see this system failing, Sport Republic are wasting good money on a scouting network stretching across Europe & beyond when they have 30,000 experts to hand who will actually pay to do the job.
We have people who can look at a player in just two games and tell whether they are good or garbage, if it is the latter we will not even have to pay their air fare home as we have around 15,000 people in our fanbase who have said many times in the past they would drive players there themselves, it is about time the club took up a fan or two on this offer and re invested the money into his replacement.
Over the years I have seen many players come and go at Southampton, some have taken a year or two to come good, even in the past decade or so the amount of abuse Sadio Mane got on social media, before Liverpool decided to pay £35 million for him, Pierre Emile Hojberg was another who struggled at first and many moaned that Orio Romeo should be in the side ahead of him.
I'm sorry but no one can tell over two performances whether a player is good or bad, especially when those two performances are in the first month of the season when the squad is in transition.
Downs is in a new country he joined Saints 3 days after his 21st birthday, 2 days after he played his last game of the 2024/25 season, that season started on 2nd August, assuming a month of pre season training, he had not had a rest in over a year.
He has arrived at Saints not refreshed and ready for a new challenge , but shattered.
Add to that he looks like a player who thrives on crosses and we haven't got any wingers.
But lets not take any of that into account, lets just write him off after a total of 3 appearances in the Championship totalling 89 minutes.
On the other side we will get much gnashing of teeth today over the departure of Dom Ballard, he scored on his debut at Cambridge in the League cup, that season he played 2 Premier League games and didn't score, has spent time out on loan at 3 different clubs in League One scoring 6 goals plus 1 assist in 45 games, yet there are many who would say bin Downs & give Ballard a chance.
He has now joined Leyton Orient, how on earth did he go under the radar of the 58 clubs not including us, that are currently above Orient in the League tables and we moan about the Saints scouting system.
All joking aside, the sad thing is how quickly we are ready to jump on the back of the signings we make, lets give them a chance, if only for the reason that we have no other choice.
There are very few signings we make that fail completely, they might not succeed and become regulars, but most make a contribution, even Sekou got a goal or assist or two that mattered.
But the Southampton way has always been about breaking even on the deal, whether that is financially or out of every 4 players that arrive, 1 becomes a first team regular, another a squad player and two are soon moving on again.
If we had written a player off after 2/3 games, then there would be some true Southampton legends both bought to the club and who came through the academy who would not have become that. |
It would be all well and good to give Downs time if if was understudy to a first choice centre forward. But that's the problem, we have no first choice centre forward.
When Ross Stewart came on against Watford, he played more like a winger and WS hasn't picked him for any of the league games, so he obviously doesn't see him as first choice CF. That leaves AA and Archer. They are both decent championship level players, but neither is a centre forward.
That all means that the priority in this window should have been to get a first choice centre forward and we have failed to do that. It's unfortunate for Downs, he wouldn't be in this spotlight if he was a winger, he would just be seen as one for the future. But unfortunately he replaced the only decent centre forward we had (Tall Paul) and with the other options not being good enough, the spotlight is on Downs and he has shown that he isn't ready yet. |  |
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