What peers said about Southampton signing Adam Armstrong

Armstrong follows Chelsea youngster Armando Broja through the door, who joined on a loan basis, to seal two forwards in one day ahead of the upcoming Premier League season. 

The 24-year-old comes with a reputation for prolific goal scoring in the Championship, but will face a task to bring that to the top-flight and lead Saints up the table. 

With bags of pace and promise, we detail exactly what you need to know about Armstrong and what some of his former managers and teammates have said. 

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Who is Adam Armstrong?

Born in West Denton, Newcastle, Adam Armstrong is a product of the Toon’s academy. The 24-year-old striker was born on February 10 1997 and is just 5foot 7’ tall.

Due to his height, it is unsurprising to hear the forward is known for being nippy and having bags of pace.

After graduating at Newcastle’s academy in 2014, Armstrong had loan spells with Coventry, Barnsley, Bolton and Blackburn – before joining the latter on a permanent basis.

Armstrong has had a glistening youth international career with England having represented at every youth level between under-16 and under-21. He is a FIFA Under-20 World Cup winner (2017) - England's first win in a global tournament since their World Cup victory of 1966 - as well as winning the UEFA European under-17 Championship (2014) and the Toulon Tournament (2018).

The striker has also captained the Young Lions.

Adam Armstrong joins Saints in a £15m deal from Championship outfit Blackburn

The recent 2020-21 and 2019-20 seasons

Adam Armstrong has been on the radar of Premier League clubs after scoring 28 goals in 40 Championship matches last term – despite Blackburn finishing 15th in the table.

That total was the second highest in the whole division, with only Brentford hotshot Ivan Toney scoring two more in a team that was eventually promoted. He also added five assists.

Armstrong scored seven goals in the last three fixtures alone, with three hattricks and four more braces over the course of the season. The striker also captained the side on a handful of occasions.

To add, in the prior 2019-20 season Armstrong scored 16 goals and registered six assists whilst not missing a single game of the season, and operating often in a right-wing or left-wing role.

Loan spells from Newcastle

As a youngster, Armstrong made 21 brief appearances for his initial parent side but failed to register a goal – before going out on loan to League One Coventry City in the 2015-16 season.

Here, he scored 20 in 40 league matches during his first regular spell of senior football, under his Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray too, as the Sky Blues finished 8th in the division.

The following season he struggled to score regularly in the Championship with Barnsley but netted half-a-dozen and showed promise, before scoring one in 20 with Bolton in the same league during the 2017-18 campaign.

Halfway through the season, Newcastle moved him back to League One where he scored nine in 21 for Blackburn and helped them seal promotion back to the Championship – and inspiring Rovers to make his acquisition a permanent one.

Adam Armstrong is a Newcastle academy product

Full career stats and transfer fee

Full breakdown of his career stats, including appearances, goals and assists.

Newcastle United under-23s – 26 17 5

Newcastle United 21 0 3

Coventry City 40 20 5

Barnsley 35 6 4

Bolton Wanderers 23 3 0

Blackburn Rovers 160 64 19 £1.7m

What have they said?

His Barnsley manager Paul Heckingbottom said: “Nobody works harder. We are doing lots of things with him, watching videos to try and open his eyes to different types of goals he needs to score.

“We have jumped up a league, he has jumped up a league, and he doesn’t just want to be an impact player.

“He wants to score different types of goals, and is definitely a player people will try and target and try to stop.”

Current Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray has said: “I think he’s an amazing player, and if he had three years left no-one would be getting him for less than £25m, those sort of numbers, yet he hasn’t. But you have to pay the price.

“Adam knocks on my door every day and let me put on record he’s a fantastic kid, there should be no criticism of him, he trains every day and does his best.”

Former England international Joe Cole, who played with Armstrong at Coventry City, praised the forward saying: “Armstrong reminds me of [Sergio] Aguero, he’s of the same build and he’s hungry for goals.

“In a lovely way he’s selfish for goals and has the ingredients to be a top player and go on to score many more goals.”

Adam Armstrong played alongside Joe Cole at Coventry City

Finally, Wayne Rooney singled Armstrong out for praise during an England camp and the young striker himself said: “I played against him (Rooney) at Old Trafford and he said he liked the way that I always got across the defenders.

“He said that the Manchester United team had watched me in the clips before the game – that was a massive confidence booster for me to have someone like that say that.

“He came into our meeting and answered questions from all the lads and then I managed to speak with him one-on-one.”