Damion Downs (Rumour)

[goodymatt]

 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

We had Cody Cropper but he never played for the first team. 

Why do all the American players we've had have the same letters for first name and surname?

Kasey Keller

Cody Cropper

now Damian Downs

 

Makes you think.....

[UpweySaint]

21 minutes ago, Badger said:

Just hope we don't end up saying similar to Mara. 

Yeah fair point - that’s the risk. I think we overpaid a bit for Mara but can see why we took a punt on him. A few goals in a good league at a young age, youth international pedigree etc. Mara being sold on to BlueCo was a bit odd - they seem to be throwing a lot of cash at potential so even though he didn’t do it for us perhaps people in the game still see something - personally I never saw much for him in a saints shirt that made me think he would crack on. If you believe TransferMarkt we actually made a profit on him though which is strange…

[hypochondriac]

22 minutes ago, austsaint said:

One difference appears to be the confidence Pochettino has in the lad.   I’ll back his judgement in.   Still think we need a better strike force than Downs, Stewart, Archer and Arma though.

I still think he wi go but if we keep Fernandes that may then be good enough. 

[Gloucester Saint]

8 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

 

At least he won’t have to play in that monstrous away kit

[sockeye]

7 minutes ago, UpweySaint said:

Yeah fair point - that’s the risk. I think we overpaid a bit for Mara but can see why we took a punt on him. A few goals in a good league at a young age, youth international pedigree etc. Mara being sold on to BlueCo was a bit odd - they seem to be throwing a lot of cash at potential so even though he didn’t do it for us perhaps people in the game still see something - personally I never saw much for him in a saints shirt that made me think he would crack on. If you believe TransferMarkt we actually made a profit on him though which is strange…

I always wonder if our poor recent history gives a bit of a smokescreen for young players who have underperformed to get decent moves out. We've finished 20th, 4th, 20th in the last three years so I wonder if that makes clubs think "he's not gotten good service from teammates", "suffered from a lack of stability", "not given a good environment to develop" etc. leading to them taking a chance on players like Mara. Players that although they are still young have not shown anything special whilst here.

Edited Friday at 09:37 by sockeye

[saintant]

45 minutes ago, Badger said:

Just hope we don't end up saying similar to Mara. 

Not sure why he would be similar to Mara although I get the worry that he could turn out to be as disappointing. As others have said Poch rates him so I'm hopeful he will come here and thrive. 

[Saint Scott]

1 hour ago, Miltonaggro said:

Yes, about as useful as Roy Cropper. 

You say that, but.... being laughed at by Roy Cropper is about as low as it gets 🫠

 

[pimpin4rizeal]

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player .. none of the American you tube analyts seem blown away with him really either .. hope we don’t get rid of many of our championship proven players to bring in gambles like this 

[Football Special]

4 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player .. none of the American you tube analyts seem blown away with him really either .. hope we don’t get rid of many of our championship proven players to bring in gambles like this 

Agree, nothing to get excited about and seems like usual gamble on a young player hoping he comes good 

[goodymatt]

Shorter vid showing all his goal contributions for those that haven’t seen them all before.

Edited Friday at 13:09 by goodymatt

[Chez]

 

Bit more meat on the bone.

Not sure I am totally convinced, but he looks better than his US strike partner Agyamang to me.

Tall, decent turn of foot (not electric), seems to play on the half turn well, happy to lay it off first time...he's much more comfortable doing that than dribbling with the ball. Touch seems OK. Not sure I see a PL striker there, but he might have more tools in his bag than Stewart. 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player .. none of the American you tube analyts seem blown away with him really either .. hope we don’t get rid of many of our championship proven players to bring in gambles like this 

I get the same feeling. Having seen a host of scruffy finishes in Onuachu's youtube video, that is a little concerning.

We are obviously shopping at a different level than last summer, but you still want to see a guy murdering opponents at the level he currently is at. There has been a lot of talk of signing players with the right physical attributes, but all I see if "tall" in Quarshie and Downs. As Onuachu proved, that isn't the most critical thing.

Edited Friday at 13:29 by Chez

[Wsaint]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player .. none of the American you tube analyts seem blown away with him really either .. hope we don’t get rid of many of our championship proven players to bring in gambles like this 

 

43 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

Shorter vid showing all his goal contributions for those that haven’t seen them all before.

Not sure what you are talking about based on this G/A video, plenty of composed finishes in there, shows he can create his own and play the poacher. Goals in and outside the box. It's always going to be gamble, we can't afford or appeal to a top clinical striker, I'm happy to give him a chance for 8 mil.

[skintsaint]

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player ..

Pretty sure I've seen a video of him volleying in a ball from over his shoulder on his left foot, hardly a scuff. 

He looks good enough for our level and at that price.

[revolution saint]

 

1 hour ago, Chez said:

 

Bit more meat on the bone.

Not sure I am totally convinced, but he looks better than his US strike partner Agyamang to me.

Tall, decent turn of foot (not electric), seems to play on the half turn well, happy to lay it off first time...he's much more comfortable doing that than dribbling with the ball. Touch seems OK. Not sure I see a PL striker there, but he might have more tools in his bag than Stewart. 

Damion Downs is a BEAST

There's some good stuff in there, he's not a premier league quality striker but you don't get them for what is it, 6.8M? He's really only had one full season of mens football so there will be lots to improve in his game and hopefully we'll get to see that.  Plus he'll probably be understudy to Stewart initially.

Edited Friday at 14:53 by revolution saint

[CSA96]

 

[saintant]

3 hours ago, Chez said:

 

Bit more meat on the bone.

Not sure I am totally convinced, but he looks better than his US strike partner Agyamang to me.

Tall, decent turn of foot (not electric), seems to play on the half turn well, happy to lay it off first time...he's much more comfortable doing that than dribbling with the ball. Touch seems OK. Not sure I see a PL striker there, but he might have more tools in his bag than Stewart. 

Looks neat and tidy if not spectacular but then he is clearly raw, in need of refinement and has much to learn. Don't think he'll come in and hit the ground running and would expect him to be more of a slow burner. He's certainly busy and I like that he is always on the move after making a pass which is an encouraging sign. Not one who gives me a feeling of real excitement but hoping he'll turn out to surprise us in a good way.

[coalman]

One thing I like from his videos is he's looking to take the ball in stride with his first touch to commit the defender rather than stopping and taking the pace out of the game. We've needed that so much in recent years.

[StrangelyBrown]

7 hours ago, Turkish said:

Why do all the American players we've had have the same letters for first name and surname?

Kasey Keller

Cody Cropper

now Damian Downs

 

Makes you think.....

We also had Tijuana Tim super soccerball fan

[BarberSaint]

3 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Pretty sure I've seen a video of him volleying in a ball from over his shoulder on his left foot, hardly a scuff. 

He looks good enough for our level and at that price.

But we really want this level and the level above. Nothing I've seen of him suggests he'd do well if we got promoted.

[Convict Colony]

4 hours ago, Chez said:

I get the same feeling. Having seen a host of scruffy finishes in Onuachu's youtube video, that is a little concerning.

We are obviously shopping at a different level than last summer, but you still want to see a guy murdering opponents at the level he currently is at. There has been a lot of talk of signing players with the right physical attributes, but all I see if "tall" in Quarshie and Downs. As Onuachu proved, that isn't the most critical thing.

Bro unless you see Saints sign Simon Banza i think you will disappointed, wonder where he is off this summer.

[Chez]

37 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Bro unless you see Saints sign Simon Banza i think you will disappointed, wonder where he is off this summer.

probably back to Turkey, possibly on loan, although Besiktas have offered €7.5m for him.

[pimpin4rizeal]

4 hours ago, Wsaint said:

 

Not sure what you are talking about based on this G/A video, plenty of composed finishes in there, shows he can create his own and play the poacher. Goals in and outside the box. It's always going to be gamble, we can't afford or appeal to a top clinical striker, I'm happy to give him a chance for 8 mil.

Most of the strikers on our books including onuachu looked better thin him .. out of Paul,archer even bbd Armstrong and Stewart you would probably have to place this guy last on who’s most likely to destroy the championship 

[Wsaint]

7 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Most of the strikers on our books including onuachu looked better thin him .. out of Paul,archer even bbd Armstrong and Stewart you would probably have to place this guy last on who’s most likely to destroy the championship 

Paul I'll give you gangly and scruffy, that might be the worst hatrick I've ever seen, I just don't think those are the right things to criticise Downs for, even if you don't think he's going to turn out well for us. In many of those clips he gets the ball out of his feet well and gets a decent shot off in tight spaces.

[pimpin4rizeal]

19 minutes ago, Wsaint said:

Paul I'll give you gangly and scruffy, that might be the worst hatrick I've ever seen, I just don't think those are the right things to criticise Downs for, even if you don't think he's going to turn out well for us. In many of those clips he gets the ball out of his feet well and gets a decent shot off in tight spaces.

I didn’t mind Paul tbh but we rarely played to his strengths .. if you played like stoke city when they had crouch Paul would probably be a excellent player.  I think  when you break it down last season was his only oppurtunity even though we hardly rained in crosses for him he still did ok and had some matches where he was really good. As for downs no idea really but don’t particularly like the look of him in the vids.: I guess his hold up play will also be a major factor into his success here too I hope he does well but he doesn’t excite me 

Edited Friday at 19:27 by pimpin4rizeal

[Saint86]

8 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Honestly see nothing exciting at all in his videos and the videos are usually flattering .. a couple of scruffy finishes from a gangly looking player .. none of the American you tube analyts seem blown away with him really either .. hope we don’t get rid of many of our championship proven players to bring in gambles like this 

 

8 hours ago, Football Special said:

Agree, nothing to get excited about and seems like usual gamble on a young player hoping he comes good 

Personally think you guys are more than a bit harsh here. There is a lot to like in his highlight reels. He's 20, had one season, will certainly offer us something different in the championship, and will only improve with game time. Its a low risk fee as well. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Never heard of him. An untried youngster with one senior season of football doesn’t scream “pushing for the Premier League at all costs”. 😅 Happy to be proved wrong.

[sockeye]

9 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Never heard of him. An untried youngster with one senior season of football doesn’t scream “pushing for the Premier League at all costs”. 😅 Happy to be proved wrong.

I mean, nitpicking, we shouldn't be pushing for the Premier League at all costs. We need to do so in a financially stable way whilst avoiding purchasing players that could easily become deadwood later. We already have a decent core to push for promotion, even if it does require a bit of downsizing. Also, he's had 2 seasons of senior football. Even if it was only one, is he really 'untried'? 'Untried' was Shea Charles with literally one league appearance as a sub for Man City at the time of us purchasing him. A good scouting team is one that can identify players ready to make the step up. We don't have the status or finances to grab players just after they've exploded with success. We have to get them one step earlier.

Edited Friday at 21:39 by sockeye

[benjii]

9 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

But we really want this level and the level above. Nothing I've seen of him suggests he'd do well if we got promoted.

Yeah, we should sign all the good Premier League players now we're in the Champ.

[Weston Super Saint]

3 hours ago, benjii said:

Yeah, we should sign all the good Premier League players now we're in the Champ.

To be fair we signed Championship level players when in the Premier League so anything's possible with our clowns.

[Chez]

12 hours ago, Wsaint said:

Paul I'll give you gangly and scruffy, that might be the worst hatrick I've ever seen, I just don't think those are the right things to criticise Downs for, even if you don't think he's going to turn out well for us. In many of those clips he gets the ball out of his feet well and gets a decent shot off in tight spaces.

he looks a million miles more fluent and mobile than Onuachu. Never seen Onuachu on the half turn, ever.

[Chez]

11 hours ago, Saint86 said:

 

Personally think you guys are more than a bit harsh here. There is a lot to like in his highlight reels. He's 20, had one season, will certainly offer us something different in the championship, and will only improve with game time. Its a low risk fee as well. 

Lowish fee, but there is nothing low risk about the signing. Every signing is important. Get it wrong and you are stuck with a waste of space for three or four years. Get it wrong and you weaken the side, weaken the squad. Get it wrong and you don't have the striker you need to get promoted. Signings need to spot on. Getting one out of five right and you are fucked. Get four out of five right and you get promoted.

[gio1saints]

The equation is thus: 

Saints - TP + athleticism + potential + modest fee and wages = DD. 
 

References:

See : Joachim Kayi-Sanda. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

If the highlights reel is anything to go by, this chap doesn’t have a lot of goals in him, however I did get the feeling he was a level above his teammates so perhaps there’s that. And he did show a good sense of special awareness in terms of passing to a teammate - seems to be a useful provider rather than just running into a blind alley like Edozie and Dibling.  Hopefully the senior strikers like AA and Stewart will work well with him and he’ll learn how to put the ball into the net more clinically well before the end of the season. Minimum expectation from me would be 6-8 goals and 10 assists.

[Gloucester Saint]

It’s going to be a ‘wait and see’ with this signing. If he scores 15 and shows potential then it’s good VFM.  

With the parachutes situation we can’t afford for him to be the main striker signing if AA/Archer/BBD goes as it’s two seasons up or bust. But all of those stay (AA the club seem to be moving on though) it looks a far better signing as he can’t be worse than Onachu, cult favourite though he was.

We look like a 6th-10th place squad as it stands if Fernandes and Ramsdale leave, could squeak in the play offs, long way to go in the window though.

Similar to 2023 so far in that outgoing fees impressive but not blown away with what’s coming in. But first team quality certainly down on that on that season even by a previous manager’s admission. Needs some automatic XI purchases to compete for the autos through the spine.

[a1ex2001]

11 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Never heard of him. An untried youngster with one senior season of football doesn’t scream “pushing for the Premier League at all costs”. 😅 Happy to be proved wrong.

We already have one of the best groups of strikers in the Championship on our books Armstrong is absolutely top notch at this level BBD and Archer also have form in this league and it appears that Stewart now has two legs so I don't think buying a promising young striker is showing a lack of ambition, it will be more interesting what happens with our best players like Fernandez and who is lining up in defence and goal at the end of the window we have massive hole at right back and potentially a need for a new keeper. 

[goodymatt]

28 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

If the highlights reel is anything to go by, this chap doesn’t have a lot of goals in him, however I did get the feeling he was a level above his teammates so perhaps there’s that. And he did show a good sense of special awareness in terms of passing to a teammate - seems to be a useful provider rather than just running into a blind alley like Edozie and Dibling.  Hopefully the senior strikers like AA and Stewart will work well with him and he’ll learn how to put the ball into the net more clinically well before the end of the season. Minimum expectation from me would be 6-8 goals and 10 assists.

29 apps last season in Bundesliga 2 but only played 1,801 mins total so 20 full games of mins. In those appearances he scored 10 goals and got 5 assists. That’s a goal every 2 games and an assist every 4. Remains to be seen what he can do at championship level and if he can translate that ratio over a season but I do think this guy has the potential  to score goals. Looks like his link play is decent, which will help Archer/Armstrong.

Eni Aluko informs me that’s actually a goal a game when you think about it, so he should fire us to promotion no problem.

[Matthew Le God]

21 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

We look like a 6th-10th place squad as it stands

Not sure how you've worked that out. More like a top 3 squad as things are currently. 

[IFHP]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Not sure how you've worked that out. More like a top 3 squad as things are currently. 

What makes you think that ? 
 

[Fabrice29]

23 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Not sure how you've worked that out. More like a top 3 squad as things are currently. 

The table will work this out for you both at the end of the season. 

Edited yesterday at 09:54 by Fabrice29

[Matthew Le God]

31 minutes ago, IFHP said:

What makes you think that ? 

The current squad is packed full of proven top Championship-level players. Beyond Ipswich, Leicester and Sheff Utd, the other clubs in the league are a long way below our current squad quality. Let alone thinking we'd come 10th with the current players!

[Matthew Le God]

14 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

The table will work this out for you both at the end of the season. 

It won't because we are talking about the squad as it is on 5th July, a long time before the window has closed.

[Midfield_General]

2 hours ago, Chez said:

Lowish fee, but there is nothing low risk about the signing. Every signing is important. Get it wrong and you are stuck with a waste of space for three or four years. Get it wrong and you weaken the side, weaken the squad. Get it wrong and you don't have the striker you need to get promoted. Signings need to spot on. Getting one out of five right and you are fucked. Get four out of five right and you get promoted.

Spot on

[benjii]

2 hours ago, gio1saints said:

The equation is thus: 

Saints - TP + athleticism + potential + modest fee and wages = DD. 
 

References:

See : Joachim Kayi-Sanda. 

Nurse!

[suewhistle]

2 hours ago, Chez said:

he looks a million miles more fluent and mobile than Onuachu. Never seen Onuachu on the half turn, ever.

Yes, just had a look at the video and he shows a different level of dynamism and urgency over TP. Brings other players into the game quite well too, giving and going into the space. How he'll perform with us will be interesting to see, but he does have age on his side. 

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Matthew Le God said:

Not sure how you've worked that out. More like a top 3 squad as things are currently. 

This. I know it's been a shite season but some of the pessimism going on is crazy (or maybe I'm just too positive this summer 😅)...

Our current squad will include the following:

GK - Ramsdale (if he leaves it will be for a good wedge and we'll strengthen here compared to the backups), Baz and AM - good backups for the champ regardless.

CB's - THB (promoted - very good at this level) / quarshie (very optimistic about him) /  Edwards (very good champ season) / stephens (more than good enough for the champ 😅. Plus woods and sanda (who looks a good squad / young player). To me, this is honestly a great set of depth for the 2nd tier - and still is known for getting the most out of his defences to boot.

FBs - wellington (uncertain how he'll fair), manning (promoted - solid player at this level), suga (should really be a boss at champ level with his pedigree), bree (solid player at this level). If we are going for 4 at the back it's unclear how much wing back play we will utilise, but the above are a good set of players for full back at champ.

CM - Downes (promoted), Charles (very good champ season), smallbone (promoted). Pair the first 2 with Fernandes in a midfield 3 and that is categorically the best midfield 3 in the league - could be ridiculous if we can keep all of them in a 3man mid.

Attacking mids / wingers - Fernandes (cheat code), dibling (good prem breakthrough season / cheat code), edozie (promoted), Fraser (promoted). Robinson will be a squad player here as well. And I think all we know this area will be strengthened.

Forwards - AA (best attacked in the league in our promotion season), BBD (proven at champ lvl), archer (good record at champ level). Downes being linked as a CF - could certainly see downed playing central with AA/archer/dibling around him. 

its already a reasonable spine - and I've assumed the likes of aribo and bednarek are on their way out as well.

I think people forget just what a shite standard the championship is. To say we have a squad ranking 6th - 10th is really pessimistic. We'll be top 1-3 end of the season if still lives up to his reputation. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Saint86

[Turkish]

What about the scar tissue?

[saint michael]

The past doesn’t mean they will be good for us this year. AA didn’t fizz on loan with WBA. BD didn’t fizz at Sheffield utd.  There are a lot of other components as well as experience which will decide whether we are top 3 or not. We have a lot of known unknowns at the moment and recruitment is one of them. 

[saint michael]

10 minutes ago, Turkish said:

What about the scar tissue?

I think we are in need of major skin grafting