Southampton have endured a very frustrating campaign of general underperformance as they hunt down the top six and the play-off places in the Championship.
Things have been improving under the inconsistent tenure of Tonda Eckert and Saints have an FA Cup quarter-final to look forward, too, amid their pursuit of a possible return to the Premier League.
However, their goals have been undermined by a woeful start to the campaign, which led to the sacking of former Lens boss Will Still, and the impressive initially interim stint of now permanent boss Eckert.
That woeful start was down to a variety of factors but exceedingly poor business in the summer, be that poor incoming business or irritatingly delayed outgoing deals, majorly contributed to that.
One of those poor pieces of business saw the south coast outfit bring in Damion Downs for a fee of £7 million from Cologne.
Damion Downs has flopped at Southampton and in the Bundesliga
Brought in to be a key man in the delivery of a sustained title challenge in the Championship, Damion Downs has endured a woeful 2025/26 campaign.
In the first-half of the campaign, Downs managed just 11 Championship appearances for Saints, failing to score, and he managed to earn a move to Hamburg.
That move to the Volksparkstadion has again been poor – and FLW’s Southampton Fan Pundit Martin Sanders has been scathing in his assessment of the United States international.
Martin says: “The problem is: who is going to want him?
“It sound like he has flopped in the Bundesliga. He struggled in the Championship so he was always going to struggle in the Bundesliga – it’s a step up.
“He scored his goals in 2. Bundesliga and he’s looked way short of anywhere near good enough for the Championship.
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“Obviously they were prepared to sell him before he went on loan to Hamburg. What a total waste of money – it’s the worst signing that they have made in a long time.”
Damion Downs has been a very poor signing for Southampton
Damion Downs came through the youth academies of 1. FC Schweinhurt 05 and then Ingolstadt before joining Cologne in 2020.
He turned professional with Cologne II before moving on to the first-team – and having a very impressive impact with the Billy Goats.
Under the management of Lukas Kwasniok, Cologne won promotion back to the Bundesliga last season as 2. Bundesliga title winners; and Downs was excellent in that achievement.
The former Germany U20 international, who has been capped six times by the United States and would have started this season hoping to star at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 21-year-old scored ten in 29 appearances as a versatile, all-action striker in Germany’s second-tier.
Zero goals in 11 games in the Championship for Saints has been backed up by a goalless eight games for Hamburg – and, for a hefty fee, he is proving to be a major mistake made by Southampton.
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