Southampton and QPR are facing very similar issue right now | OneFootball

Two Championship clubs are facing a strikingly similar dilemma over strikers they signed who are not meeting expectations in while on loan in Germany.

The two Championship clubs are both facing a similar issue at the moment, with strikers who they've loaned out to clubs in Germany but who are failing to make a positive impact at their new clubs.

Neither Southampton nor Queens Park Rangers are quite having the Championship season that they would have hoped for at the start of the season.

Freshly relegated from the Premier League, Southampton started the season with hopes of bouncing straight back but struggled under new head coach Will Still, who they sacked at the start of November, and although they remain in the hunt for a play-off place, any return to the top-flight is already looking more likely to come about through this means than automatic promotion, if it is to happen at all.

The ambitions at Queens Park Rangers at the start of the season will have been more modest than those of Southampton, given their lack of parachute payment money, but 2025-26 has been an inconsistent one for the Rs. There have been points at which they've threatened to push towards the play-off places, but an inability to put a convincing run of form together has meant that the overwhelming emotion to have emanated from Loftus Road this season has been one of frustration.

Yet these two clubs are united by one common problem. Both have strikers on their books that they have loaned to Germany, only to find that the issues that plagued their stays in England have continued.

Damion Downs and Zan Celar are both struggling on loan in Germany

With six caps for the USA national team, there were high hopes for striker Damion Downs when he joined the Saints from 1. FC Köln last summer for £7 million.

But Downs failed to find his feet at Southampton and was loaned back to Germany, joining Hamburger SV on loan until the end of this season in January.

The situation regarding Žan Celar and Queens Park Rangers is slightly different, in that Celar spent the whole of the 2024-25 season at Loftus Road following his transfer from the Swiss club Lugano in the summer of 2024.

But like Downs, Celar was also unable to hit form in the Championship, and he was subsequently loaned out to the 2. Bundesliga club Fortuna Dusseldorf last summer.

Downs and Celar have both faced criticism while on loan, after failing to impress with their parent clubs

The replies to a recent post to the social media platform X by the official account of Hamburger SV confirming a 1-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen confirmed that all is not going well for Damion Downs in Germany. One read, "...Downs hasn't achieved anything for weeks!!!", while another added that substitute Otto Stange had "showed more in those 20 minutes than from the entire Downs loan so far", imploring the club to "please finally drop him from the squad."

The Bayern Leverkusen match marked Downs' sixth appearance for Hamburg since joining the club in January, but he has failed to register a goal or an assist for them, and his match rankings have been less than impressive. This mirrors the first half of his season at St Mary's, over the course of which he could only manage eleven appearances for Southampton. He managed an assist on the opening weekend of the season against Wrexham, but this was his only goal contribution before his January move to Germany.

To say that the loan of Žan Celar to Fortuna Dusseldorf hasn't worked out would be something of an understatement. Dusseldorf reportedly inquired about returning the player to Loftus Road in the January transfer window but were told that this wasn't an option. Stuck with a player that they do not want, they have tried to integrate Celar into their first-team, but recent reports of training ground bust-ups have cast a pall over his stay in Germany.

Celar has made thirteen appearances in the 2. Bundesliga for the club but, like Downs, he has failed to register either a goal or an assist in Germany. Match ratings for his performances are not completely available, but those that are available indicate the scale of the problems that he's been having since arriving at the club.

According to Sport Witness, a big part of the reason why QPR didn't want him back was because "FIFA rules won’t let him to be registered with a third club in the same season, unless a club outside of the usual European calendar is found", on account of him having played a couple of games for Rangers at the start of this season before they sent him to Dusseldorf on loan.

The upshot of all this is that both players are due to be returning to their parent clubs at the end of this season, and that Southampton and Queens Park Rangers will have to decide what on earth they're going to do with them next. Both players have a while left to run on their contracts. Salary Sport indicate that Celar is under contract with QPR until the summer of 2028, while Downs is under contract with Southampton until 2029.

Given the fact that both flattered to deceive at their parent clubs in England and are in the process of crashing and burning on loan in Germany, both clubs could find these signings difficult to move on, whether permanently or on another loan, when they return to their parent clubs at the end of 2025-26.