Damion Downs arrived at Southampton last July with his reputation already building. He had just scored 11 goals in helping FC Köln win the 2. Bundesliga title, played in a Gold Cup final with the USA and scored the decisive penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Costa Rica. He stands 6ft 4in tall, is technically gifted and signed a four-year contract.
Then he made five Championship appearances, picked up one assist and went out on loan to Hamburger SV in January. That is not a failed signing. That is a player who never really got going.
A player who deserves more than five appearances
Downs recorded 275 Championship minutes for Southampton before his loan move, posting a FotMob rating of 6.01. On the surface that looks thin, but look closer before drawing any conclusions.
Tonda Eckert had Cyle Larin arriving in January and Ross Stewart fit and firing in the second half of the season. The competition for a starting striker role was as fierce as it gets, and Downs was never handed a sustained run of games at any point during the campaign.
The Northam End did what the Northam End always does. They spotted the situation, found the humour in it and started singing "on the pitch if Damion scores" with the kind of affectionate irony that only makes sense if you have stood there for twenty years. It was funny because it was true. Downs barely played. But there was warmth in it too, a crowd quietly willing a young player to get his moment.
He never quite got it. That needs to change this summer.
His loan at Hamburger SV gave him more exposure in Germany, but at a level higher than he had already mastered with Köln, and coming back now with three different leagues under his belt before his 22nd birthday is not a bad place to be.
Twelve and a half thousand pounds a week
That is what Downs costs Southampton every seven days. For a 6ft 4in USA international with a four-year contract and a 2. Bundesliga title on his CV, which represents one of the most cost-effective assets in the entire squad, and Southampton are not risking anything by giving him a proper pre-season to show what he can do.
The worst outcome is another loan in August. The best is that Eckert unearths a striker who costs almost nothing, physically dominates Championship defences and is already playing international football for one of the game's emerging nations. Spors does not sign players without reason, and whatever he saw at Köln convinced him to move quickly. That judgement deserves more than a handful of substitute appearances before everyone writes Downs off.
And if he does score this season, the Northam End will have a very different problem on their hands. They might actually have to go on the pitch.
Ross Stewart has gone. The door is open
With Stewart departing and the striking options genuinely thin, the pathway for Downs to play meaningful pre-season football is clearer than it has ever been since he arrived at St Mary's.
Give him the games, put him in front of a range of defenders in friendly conditions and see what happens. Then make a proper, informed decision based on actual evidence rather than assumptions built on a season where he barely featured.
Downs has barely settled in at Southampton, and at 21, on £12,500 a week with three years left on his deal, the argument for patience is not at all complicated.
Pre-season starts soon. The Northam End are ready to go on the pitch. Time to give them a reason.
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