Does our recruitment team even watch players before we buy them?

[Osvaldorama]

How is it possible that people get paid money to sign these guys? 

Downs is literally the worst player I have ever seen. (Wasn’t around when Ali Dia played for us)  

Compound that on top of Bazunu and many others.. 

Astonishing. 
 

 

Edited 23 September, 2025 by Osvaldorama

[CSA96]

They seemed to watch Estoril pretty well to spot Mateus Fernandes and get him over here with nobody really knowing who he was  

[trousers]

3 hours ago, CSA96 said:

They seemed to watch Estoril pretty well to spot Mateus Fernandes and get him over here with nobody really knowing who he was  

 

[Turkish]

They look at the data 

[AlexLaw76]

Downs is - Young, Hungry and GUARANTEED to......

you know the saying....

[lambtiss]

15 minutes ago, Turkish said:

They look at the data 

That can be the only explanation for us buying Downs. Any scout seeing him live would have had to see he had the touch of a rapist, zero positional awareness and inability to head the ball. At the very least, I would expect him to compensate such poor natural talent by competing for every ball and pressing the opposition urgently as Shane Long did, but he doesn’t even do that.

 

This reeks of SRs data driven approach to recruitment.: we need a number 9 Tick, needs to be tall Tick, needs to be young rather than experienced Tick.

How on earth does Stewart not get in ahead of him?

Edited 24 September, 2025 by lambtiss

[lambtiss]

7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Downs is - Young, Hungry and GUARANTEED to......

you know the saying....

Disappoint?

[Turkish]

14 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

That can be the only explanation for us buying Downs. Any scout seeing him live would have had to see he had the touch of a rapist, zero positional awareness and inability to head the ball. At the very least, I would expect him to compensate such poor natural talent by competing for every ball and pressing the opposition urgently as Shane Long did, but he doesn’t even do that.

 

This reeks of SRs data driven approach to recruitment.: we need a number 9 Tick, needs to be tall Tick, needs to be young rather than experienced Tick.

How on earth does Stewart not get in ahead of him?

It does but Poch picks him for the US squad so unless they have literally no other strikers then he must be at least marginally better than he’s showing. 

[Football Special]

7 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

How is it possible that people get paid money to sign these guys? 

Downs is literally the worst player I have ever seen. (Wasn’t around when Ali Dia played for us)  

Compound that on top of Bazunu and many others.. 

Astonishing. 
 

 

A computer tells them what to do based on stats , age etc,  Rasmus prefers that approach, not sure any actual scouting gets done. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, Football Special said:

A computer tells them what to do based on stats , age etc,  Rasmus prefers that approach, not sure any actual scouting gets done. 

That explains a lot.

[Badger]

42 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

That can be the only explanation for us buying Downs. Any scout seeing him live would have had to see he had the touch of a rapist, zero positional awareness and inability to head the ball. At the very least, I would expect him to compensate such poor natural talent by competing for every ball and pressing the opposition urgently as Shane Long did, but he doesn’t even do that.

 

This reeks of SRs data driven approach to recruitment.: we need a number 9 Tick, needs to be tall Tick, needs to be young rather than experienced Tick.

How on earth does Stewart not get in ahead of him?

You wouldn’t think one of our main recruitment team had previously been working in Germany would you ? 

[SaintNewForest]

No, i dont think they care about how we play. They look at value, and whether our overlords at SR can make a good profit. 

Which still begs the question as to what they saw to sign Downs?

[die Mannyschaft]

Its very unlikely they watch the players. Certain its all done on stats, like EA26 with how fast run, left foot  right foot skill which side better, tackles made, passes, headers. Its all metrics. No one will ever watch a player only at lower leaques.

Didn't we get two player for about £20m each and they got maybe 17 goals between them in 2 seasons. 

That's also why we grt all the excuses, the person can play on left, this one cant do that v this team, etc. 

Players are so restrictive and only with a few skills.

Watching Liverpool game its 100% clear no one goes to a game to assess a player for 95 mins

[trousers]

59 minutes ago, Turkish said:

It does but Poch picks him for the US squad so unless they have literally no other strikers then he must be at least marginally better than he’s showing. 

Yep, I posted this in the Downs thread last night. USA are ranked in the world top 16 and Downs is considered one of their best two strikers (by none other than Pochetttino) so he *must* have something about him that we're not currently seeing in a Saints shirt, surely...?

[Patches O Houlihan]

3 minutes ago, trousers said:

Yep, I posted this in the Downs thread last night. USA are ranked in the world top 16 and Downs is considered one of their best two strikers (by none other than Pochetttino) so he *must* have something about him that we're not currently seeing in a Saints shirt, surely...?

Wan't there something a bit odd with their striker situation this summer in the Gold Cup? I caught the last few minutes of a game with Downs in it and half remember a commentator saying that he was playing on a temporary basis because 1 or 2 main men were away for whatever reason.

[trousers]

Just now, Patches O Houlihan said:

Wan't there something a bit odd with their striker situation this summer in the Gold Cup? I caught the last few minutes of a game with Downs in it and half remember a commentator saying that he was playing on a temporary basis because 1 or 2 main men were away for whatever reason.

I'm not aware of the background but, yeah, quite possibly.

Put him in the U21s and see if that unearths any hitherto hidden talent.

[wild-saint]

In isolation Downs looks poor and a terrible signing so far. Based on all of Spors other signings this summer, how do we rate him? Scienza, Jander, Jelert, Fellows look decent so far. Azaz and Quashie have potential to become decent players in our team. Mads can do a job. Not every signing works out. Overall im happy at the moment. I’m less happy with the holes that they didn’t attempt to fill. GK and someone that can lead the line.

[lambtiss]

5 hours ago, Turkish said:

It does but Poch picks him for the US squad so unless they have literally no other strikers then he must be at least marginally better than he’s showing. 

To be fair it wouldn't be difficult to be marginally better than he is currently showing.

[swannymere]

The price bracket we're scouting in you're taking a punt on players.

[saint michael]

did I read somewhere that Poch talked to him when he heard we were in for him and recommended us to him?  Might have dreamt this 😂. 
 

he looks totally lost and watches game go on around him. No movement towards the ball and always chasing as it goes by 

[gio1saints]

Downs looks patently well down on confidence to me. Everything about his presence on the pitch latterly screams nerves have got the better of him. 
I don’t understand why but it’s not because he is not big strong tall or fast. Oh and he can kick a ball. For me this is an entirely mental issue. 

He gets that resolved it’s a different player. And clearly Poch has seen something in him and I’m not arguing with his footballing opinion!
He does get his head right - he could be massively good - he does not - he’s getting shipped back to Germany. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 hours ago, saint michael said:

did I read somewhere that Poch talked to him when he heard we were in for him and recommended us to him?  Might have dreamt this 😂. 
 

he looks totally lost and watches game go on around him. No movement towards the ball and always chasing as it goes by 

Hard to say if it's Downs that Poch hates, or us. 🙂

[Lord Duckhunter]

Who is Downs agent, and have we signed others from the same agent or agency? 

[whelk]

17 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Downs is literally the worst player I have ever seen.

I bet you were saying the same about Pelle and Mane.

Your comment is literally stupid

[Toussaint]

4 hours ago, gio1saints said:

Downs looks patently well down on confidence to me. Everything about his presence on the pitch latterly screams nerves have got the better of him. 
I don’t understand why but it’s not because he is not big strong tall or fast. Oh and he can kick a ball. For me this is an entirely mental issue. 

He gets that resolved it’s a different player. And clearly Poch has seen something in him and I’m not arguing with his footballing opinion!
He does get his head right - he could be massively good - he does not - he’s getting shipped back to Germany. 

There maybe truth in that, but wouldn’t you compensate by putting yourself about a bit, chasing down some lost causes, ruffling a few feathers?

[lambtiss]

31 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

There maybe truth in that, but wouldn’t you compensate by putting yourself about a bit, chasing down some lost causes, ruffling a few feathers?

Absolutely, his body language stinks as though he doesn’t want to be here. All strikers have periods of bad form and their confidence suffers, but they still need to go through the motions. That’s the way you play yourself back into form. You are never going to resolve the issues by just strolling around the pitch. The classic example of this was Shane Long, not the tallest and not the most talented, but compensated for his weaknesses by chasing and competing for everything and making defenders lives a nightmare, until something clicked, which it often did.

Edited 24 September, 2025 by lambtiss

[saintwbu]

42 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

There maybe truth in that, but wouldn’t you compensate by putting yourself about a bit, chasing down some lost causes, ruffling a few feathers?

Unless a lack of confidence means he doesn’t really want the ball 

[S-Clarke]

20 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

How is it possible that people get paid money to sign these guys? 

Downs is literally the worst player I have ever seen. (Wasn’t around when Ali Dia played for us)  

Compound that on top of Bazunu and many others.. 

Astonishing. 
 

 

They have shown they can make good picks, but they're few and far between. It does seem strange how the same scouting network can spot someone like Fernandes and bring him in, but in the same breath approve and sign Brereton-Diaz. Something just doesn't add up, it's like we've got two scouting networks working independently.

I get clubs make bad signings, but the drop off from our few good signings to our bad ones is huge - it's not even that they're not 'as good', they're fricking trash.

[Mboto Gorge]

Don’t worry he’ll come good, after all….,

Group Technical Director Johannes Spors said: “Damion is a player we have been monitoring for some time who possesses excellent physical qualities and the ability to disrupt defences.

“Strengthening our attacking options was one of our top priorities this summer, and Damion is a player who will add real quality to the group. Despite his relatively young age he is already a senior international, so we are excited to see him thrive in the environment here at Southampton.”

[hypochondriac]

Quarshie is an example in my opinion of good recruitment. A promising player with potential and good attributes signed in an area where we already have decent strength. He isn't the finished article but we don't need him to be. He's signed to hopefully develop with us. The problem isn't necessarily signing Downs although I would question the amount we paid for him, the issue was that we are so light in particular attributes up front that he is playing when he doesn't deserve to. We should be in a position up front like we are at centre back where we have strength and can ease him in to see if he actually has anything to offer at all.

[Osvaldorama]

5 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Quarshie is an example in my opinion of good recruitment. A promising player with potential and good attributes signed in an area where we already have decent strength. He isn't the finished article but we don't need him to be. He's signed to hopefully develop with us. The problem isn't necessarily signing Downs although I would question the amount we paid for him, the issue was that we are so light in particular attributes up front that he is playing when he doesn't deserve to. We should be in a position up front like we are at centre back where we have strength and can ease him in to see if he actually has anything to offer at all.

Yeah, I think he looks a prospect. Agree that he is raw, but has some key attributes that we are missing. 
 

I just don’t understand how we can get our ‘bad ones’ so hopelessly wrong. Every club has a fair share of signings that don’t work out; so I understand that you can’t have a 100% hit rate. 

But some of the decision making since SR have come in is insane. They aren’t just bad signings, they’re players that look like they shouldn’t be on a professional pitch. Let alone paying big fees for them. Madness 

[Willo of Whiteley]

7 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Quarshie is an example in my opinion of good recruitment. A promising player with potential and good attributes signed in an area where we already have decent strength. He isn't the finished article but we don't need him to be. He's signed to hopefully develop with us. The problem isn't necessarily signing Downs although I would question the amount we paid for him, the issue was that we are so light in particular attributes up front that he is playing when he doesn't deserve to. We should be in a position up front like we are at centre back where we have strength and can ease him in to see if he actually has anything to offer at all.

Agreed. He has looked a little edgy in early appearances. But if he gets some composure and bulks up he could easily grow into a commanding leader.