Toela65

Done some digging for you from the person who was feeding us all the spot on info regarding the Downing deal. Either the person who was passing the info on to us or the source itself seems to think talks began in earnest Monday morning after the Downing fee was agreed Sunday evening. They seem to think this deal was sorted and thats why we were allowed to speak to Downing and do his medical. Their best guess for why this isn't done yet is a large late bid from Sunderland which has turned Whelans head. Their pretty adamant that this was deal was basically done by late Weds night when the Downing deal was announced.

If anyone cares Downing passed his medical and agreed terms at Melwood this afternoon and will be presented to the cameras tomorrow. Dunno why this hasn't been announced in the press yet though. No-ones 100% sure on wages but best info I can get suggests its around £75,000 per week plus bonuses based on individual and team targets.

That Daily Express article makes a lot of sense because based on the info we were given talks between Wigan and Villa were a lot more advanced than you just only putting a £10m bid in this evening. I reckon that bid went it on any time after Sunday night when Villa and Liverpool had basically agreed a total price for the Downing deal. This wouldn't be that strange because we had a fee agreed for Downing in principle for 3 days before anything was put out to the press late last night so wouldn't be surprised at all if talks were a lot more advanced than it seems. I Hope you sign him, Steve Bruce has a big fat head.

I think most concrete is probaby dare I say Mirror's tweet with quote from Pardew. MirrorFootball Alan Pardew on N'Zogbia: "I am told that Charles has got an imminent move, so I don't think that will be us." Replacement for Downing? #AVFC Interesting ..it would seem that all the reports are that NUFC & SAFC didn't bother putting in bids for him. Interesting. I hadn't seen this until now but was told that Pardew was telling people that Villa had beaten them to Nzogbia so that links up to what we were told about Villa signing Nzogbia before Downing was allowed to leave.

Don't even know why I'm bothering writing this as no-one will believe me and I'll just get abuse but I was privvy to info during the Downing saga and was at one point told that LFC getting Downing -depended on Villa getting Nzogbia. We were told the Downing deal couldn't go ahead until you had Nzogbia in the bag. This was on 10-07-2011 and we never heard anything else about the Nzog implications again so I assuming you must be close to getting him as Downing has been completed and our source was right on everything else.

They're buying players yes, but so what? Given the money they've been spending and the big club that they supposedly are, you'd think they'd be able to get better than Downing and Henderson. You're making the same mistake Liverpool fans are making. No champions league so can't be expecting the bet of the best to sign. Downing for LW is probably as good as can be expected until back in champs league which is going to very difficult.