Dragan Solak backs this Southampton flop to still be a success

Dragan Solak has been anything but tight-lipped in recent weeks.

Publicly coming out to back Tonda Eckert, despite his heavy involvement in Southampton's Spygate antics, the Serbian has also been noted this June as saying that the Saints mean "serious business" about gunning for promotion when the next Championship season rolls around.

He has further been chatting about Southampton's transfer hits and misses of recent times, when speaking to the Daily Echo recently, with Solak unsurprisingly filing Damion Downs under the flop category.

Downs' torrid time at the Saints

The Saints owner would go into detail about how he runs the club alongside Johannes Spors, who is the transfer business techincal director.

With the likes of Cyle Larin, Caspar Jander, and Leo Scienza all entering the building last summer, it's clear that Spors has his finger on the pulse in unearthing top-drawer talent.

Yet, even the shrewdest operator will fall victim to a blunder here and there, and the £7m capture of Downs certainly falls under the unwanted label of being a dud purchase, at this moment in time.

11 games would pass the 21-year-old last season in the Championship without a single goal to show for his efforts, with Downs then loaned back out to Hamburg to try and kickstart a rich vein of goalscoring form again.

This didn't materialise, as another 12 clashes would come his way with zero strikes to shout about, with the ex-Koln attacker - who bagged 13 strikes in the senior picture at Koln - at a crossroads already when it comes to his abject Saints stay.

Hamburg isn't willing to make his switch permanent this summer, either, after his timid performances in the Bundesliga, and it looks unlikely that Downs will come back into Eckert's camp this off-season and stand out enough to be considered an option for the Championship.

Yet, in Solak's eyes, there is still an opportunity ahead for the goal-shy striker to be a success story at. St. Mary's.

While the Serbian did acknowledge that he is a "miss" for the time being, he also stated that he "looks like he can be good" down the line.

It will be fascinating to see what plays out with Downs this forthcoming summer, with an unbelievable turnaround in fortunes not on anyone's script.

Can he turn around his fortunes?

With Ross Stewart failing to agree a new contract, though, could Downs be handed a chance to impress this pre-season, as a potential second-in-command figure to Larin?

It's clear that Southampton will be on the hunt for a Stewart replacement, and Downs might well be the unexpected in-house fill-in nobody saw coming.

Scoring 37 goals across his entire career at Koln, which saw him rise the ranks from U17 obscurity to the main team fold, it's self-evident that Downs does know where the goal is when he gets into his groove.

To dismiss him after only 12 Southampton appearances does feel a little harsh, and with his reputation at an all-time low at the moment, selling him for anywhere near his prior £7m valuation is unrealistic.

Therefore, Eckert and Co could be stuck with Downs for better, or for worse, with Solak hopeful that Eckert can work his magic on another Saints individual, rather than having to admit outright that the 21-year-old was a colossal waste of cash.

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