Saints seem to be having a clear out of their attacking options with both Adam Armstrong & Cameron Archer set to join Damion Downs on leaving in January, so can replacing three with one work.

Southampton will be very light on forwards by the end of Monday unless they have another striker up their sleeve other than Canadian international Cyle Larin.

With Damion Downs already on loan at Hamburg in the Bundesliga, Adam Armstrong set to join Wolves and Cameron Archer on the verge of a move to Rangers in Scotland, that will leave Saints with just two strikers, the injury prone Ross Stewart and youngster Oylekunle, who to be honest didn't look the part, at least not yet up at Stoke City.

So the club on the face of it seem to be taking a huge gamble in moving out 3 and bringing in just the 1 to replace them, although it could be said only Armstrong has played a major part in this season, so it could be said that the departure of the other two would not be a big loss.

So who is Cyle Larin, the first thought of many would be that he is a Damion Downs clone, a tall striker from North America with a few goals in minor leagues in Europe, but that would not be quite true, he is no youngster and has a raft of experience not only in the MLS in the USA but in Europe.

He is 30 years old, turning 31 in April and at 6ft 2 can play as an out and out centre forward, his usual position but also out wide as a winger.

As a teenager he left his native Canada to join Orlando City in the MLS, in his 3 seasons in Florida he played 89 MLS games and scored 43 goals, a decent ratio a goal every 2 games, which earned him a move to Turkey where he joined Besiktas.

He would remain at the club for 5 seasons, although midway through he would spend a season on loan at Zult Waregem in the Jupilo Pro League in Belgium, in his four seasons in Istanbul he would hit 31 goals in 83 games and in his loan season 7 goals in 29 games.

In 2022 he moved to Belgium on a permanent basis, this time to Club Brugge, but this would not be a success, just 1 goal in 9 games lead to a loan in the second half of the season to Valladolid.

In the Spanish top flight he again flourished, 8 goals in just 19 games, and he was back to Spain on a permanent basis in 23/24 season, via a loan option to buy to Valladolid for 1.5 million euros and an immediate sale to Mallorca for 8 million euros.

But his first two seasons at Mallorca would not be deemed a success, he played in most of the games, but the overall return in La Liga for them would be just 10 goals in 67 games and he was loaned to Feyenoord in September 2025.

Game time at Feyenoord has been hard to come by, just 152 minutes spread over 8 games, which has lead to a recall to Mallorca and now it seems a move to Southampton.

His overall stats are quite impressive, in all club competitions 360 games yielding 120 goals and 35 assists, plus 30 goals for Canada in 87 games.

Given all of his games have been in a top flight leagues and cups a goal every 3 games average is not bad especially when that is replicated by his tally for his country.

Perhaps the story it doesn't tell is that he seems to be a player who needs a team to play to his strengths, so perhaps a better comparison would be Tall Paul Onuachu rather than Damion Downs, Tall Paul failed in England but scored for fun in Turkey, why ? perhaps because Trabzonspor played to his strengths, whereas we didn't.

So Cyle Larin could well delight Southampton supporters, but only if we use him in a way that suits his play.

Tall Paul failed and to be fair so did Damion Downs, because they played in teams that did not play to their strengths, both were strikers who needed balls played into the box quickle, they were not players who could hold up the ball and then play it quickly in a slow methodical build up, they were centre forwards in an old style.

So the key to Larin succeeding is whether he can fit Saints style, his number of assists suggests that he can and his ability to play out wide also offer other options of where to play him.

So we should welcome him with an open mind, give him the chance to succeed and hopefully he will.

But I still think that we will be short in attacking options, the 3 players who will be here on the face of it will not be enough and no one is putting much money on Ross Stewart remaining fit for the rest of the season.

All Photos Via Reuters