With Larin I think the feeling was 'never heard of him, here we go again..' compounded by the Feyenoord fans' reports. He put some of our worries to rest quite quickly, didn't he!
His touch may not be the best but he's just the physical handful we've been asking for, and he's done some delightful lay-offs with his back to goal in addition to his penalty area contributions.
As for Downs, you do wonder what was going on, both with the player and with the scouting. Paul Moody bought from Waterlooville back in the day had more idea how to play football.