You only need to cast an eye over the Premier League’s current Golden Boot standings to see that concerns over a striker’s ability to make the step up from the Championship to England’s top flight are often unfounded.
Sitting third and fourth, behind Erling Haaland and Harry Kane, are Aleksandr Mitrovic and Ivan Toney. Championship Golden Boot winners in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
Ollie Watkins, Teemu Pukki, Patrick Bamford all hit double figures in the Premier League after stepping up from the EFL too. Ditto Rickie Lambert and Andy Johnson. And who could forget Kevin Phillips’ remarkable 1999/20 season? From Division One to the European Golden Shoe in the space of just 12 months.
Unfortunately for Southampton, however, £15 million Adam Armstrong is proving to be more of a David Nugent than a Mitrovic or a Toney. The big-money signing from Blackburn Rovers took his barren run to 12 games in Tuesday’s insipid 1-0 defeat to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest.
In fact, since joining the bottom-of-the-table Saints in the summer of 2021, Armstrong has scored just three Premier League goals in 40 matches. Three in 48, across all competitions.
West Ham United decided not to sign Southampton’s Adam Armstrong
There are contributing factors, of course. Southampton are hardly a side brimming with creativity, after all, while Armstrong has also been shunted out wide at times. But, even when chances have fallen his way, the former Newcastle United youngster has looked a pale imitation of the player who scored 28 Championship goals in his final season at Blackburn, becoming the first Rovers man since a certain Alan Shearer to break the 20-goal barrier in a league campaign.
His 4.3 per cent conversation rate placed was bettered by a staggering 255 other Premier League players in 2021/22 (Kickest). Jay Rodriguez, Salomon Rondon and Dan Burn, to name but three.
“You see the best in the world miss chances. But numbers always do the talking. And that’s what I want to get more of; more assists, more goals,” Armstrong tells Hampshire Live and the Daily Echo.
“I think I work hard every day to make my strengths and weaknesses get better. I’m always pushing myself to be the best. I’m hoping to do a lot better.”
Armstrong’s Saints career only heading one way
Unless something changes rather dramatically, Armstrong’s Southampton career may already be grinding to a rather depressing halt. A new centre-forward is high on Nathan Jones’ January wishlist; talks underway for Terem Moffi and Nicolas Jackson. Mislav Orsic is set to arrive from Dinamo Zagreb. And, if Southampton were to sell Armstrong now, they’d surely recoup only a fraction of that £15 million investment.
West Ham’s decision to walk away from negotiations with Blackburn nearly two years ago, then, has aged like fine wine. Hammers boss David Moyes, Lancs Live say, held talks with Rovers counterpart Tony Mowbray before the London giants backed out of the race. Realising, with some justification, that greater value for money could be found elsewhere.
Arguably no club has signed quite so many ill-fitting strikers as West Ham over the last 15 years or so. Not even Chelsea. Sebastien Haller, Nikica Jelavic and Simone Zaza, for instance.
Who knows, maybe Armstrong would have posted far better numbers in a West Ham side who qualified for Europe once again in 2021/22. But, with every goalless game that passes, West Ham’s decision to call time on negotiations looks more and more inspired.
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