holtelower Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Oh so now its back to he's crap again. Weird really, how in a team that boasted Ashley Young, Kyle Walker, Brad Friedal that he got players, supporters, and fan clubs player of the year. And do you know why he got it, coz he was superb. However, Young is seen as the hero - and from what I could see, he played appallingly for 12 mpnths apart from a) When he was in an England shirt The England manager was in the stand. Strange how people see things differently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Oh so now its back to he's crap again. Weird really, how in a team that boasted Ashley Young, Kyle Walker, Brad Friedal that he got players, supporters, and fan clubs player of the year. And do you know why he got it, coz he was superb. However, Young is seen as the hero - and from what I could see, he played appallingly for 12 mpnths apart from a) When he was in an England shirt The England manager was in the stand. Strange how people see things differently Who's saying he's crap? :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul34 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 What would you rather do? Keep a player who dosen't want to play for us and have him dawdling around for 90 minutes or get £20 million for him? Same with the others, no-brainer really... too true wedge,my view aswell :winkold: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Go on Stewart, break a leg. No, really, do. I hope Delph and Stan are playing at VP when Plop come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_The_Villan Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Stewart Downing is everything that is wrong with footballers today. Me me me me me me. Its the agents who are ruining the game. Downing, although a complete tosser at the end of the day is a human being. If hes got some ponce whispering in his ear 'i can double your money' then he will take it. No matter how happy he might have been whilst here (and i do honestly believe he was happy here) money talks. Not about european footie, not about england call ups, not about winning trophies...just money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.I.C.O. Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Bye bye Stewart, always had a sneaky feeling you were not going to be here for long. Enjoy jumping out of more tackles next season you money grabbing word removed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Go on Stewart, break a leg. No, really, do. I hope Delph and Stan are playing at VP when Plop come. I think we should withdraw players like Bent and Albrighton for that game and just put in the 11 most tough tackling players at the club. Hell, even throw Warnock in and tell him Downing is the reason why he was dumped in the reserves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 We could encourage Roy Keane to come out of retirement for one night only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted July 14, 2011 Moderator Share Posted July 14, 2011 I'd be happy to have a one game Villa career, hell I wouldn't need 90 minutes just give me 10 minutes. I'd play for free as well so no need for Randy to worry about wages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Sign up NRC for the Liverpool game. Special guest appearance. Same with Vieira. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alf_stewart Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 word removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toela65 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Either way Liverpool are buying players , just bought our best player of last season and will be competeing for European places ..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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Stewart Downing: From zero to hero and back again SOMEWHERE on Stewart Downing's mantelpiece is a metal pin in a glass jar. Villa fans understandably fuming from Downing's impending departure to Liverpool could be excused for thinking it's a Frankenstein-style bolt from the winger's neck, given the general claret and blue consensus that the club created a monster. In actual fact the steel pin is the one which bonded his fractured foot with sufficient success he passed a medical on crutches at Villa exactly two years ago on Saturday. Downing kept it as a souvenir of the faith Villa showed in signing him for a then joint club record £12 million fee from relegated Middlesbrough despite his serious injury woes. "It was quite a long pin to be fair," Downing told me back in October 2009. "Am I keeping the pin? Yeah, but I have had to have it sterilised. "I am keeping it. It just looks like a nail you would bang into a door." He might as well bang it into the Anfield dressing room wall to hang his new Reds shirt, although Villa fans would gladly string him up on it given half a chance. It's not so much the leaving for bigger and better things, although quitting for another club without European football next season is a slight on the claret and blues. It's more the leading on and letting down; the tacit refusal to acknowledge and repay the privilege Randy Lerner gave him by subsidising his half a season on a treatment table without kicking a ball. It's that Downing was happy to take Villa's money when few other top clubs would have touched him, but that any loyalty was conspicuous by its absence as soon as the first head-turning sniff of an offer materialised. Then there was the shoddy way his departure was engineered. First he dropped his shoulder and took all the Villa fans with him by declaring he would be open to the idea of signing a new contract. Then he dropped his other shoulder and sent supporters the other way by not only stalling on the deal, but strongly hinting he would not be a Villa player next season. I was lucky enough to get an exclusive interview with Downing at Villa's annual awards dinner on May 9 when he picked up the fans', players' and sponsors' best player gongs. This was his position back then: "I think there's been a couple of conversations already with my agent. I've already spoken to the manager who has said he'd like to keep me. "I'm enjoying my stay here. I've enjoyed it since the first day I came. It's a terrific football club. It's fantastic they want me. "There's terrific players. I'm confident, despite this season, we're going in the right direction and if we get the right players in then I'm happy. "The important thing in football is, if you're happy, then why change it? "I know it's been a disappointing season, but I can see the bigger picture." By May 26, in an interview given to a newspaper in his native north east, the 'bigger picture' was becoming blurred. "I am 26 and at a major crossroads in my career so I won't be committing to a new deal at the moment." A month later on June 30, on England duty ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifying draw with Switzerland, Downing was now freezing Villa out of the 'bigger picture' completely by discussing how fans would react to his likely departure. "You hope they do understand, but normal fans will want you to stay at their club for the rest of your life. "If you do leave there's obviously a bit of bitterness there. "You hope they do understand because, it's like any job, if there's a better job on hand, or a better level to do it, then people do it." It was particularly galling as Downing had always seemed like one of the good guys. As far removed from the mercenary money-grabbing monster as you could possibly imagine. From the first occasion I met him - chatting to him on the ground floor of Bodymoor Heath to save him struggling up the stairs on crutches - he struck me as a decent lad. He went up even further in my estimation when discussing the emotive subject of the death of a sibling months later. Luke Young was nearing a return to action after his half brother Andre tragically passed away during a holiday accident and Young's close pal and former Boro team-mate Downing spoke with real empathy, having lost his own baby sister Vicki to leukemia years earlier. Stew would always be the one prepared to face the press, win lose or draw after matches, and I can recall him, in Anfield of all places, huddled in a cubbyhole, honestly explaining Villa's dreadful 3-0 defeat to Liverpool last December and patiently answering increasingly probing questions where other players would have excused themselves and left. On the face of it, £20 million at this given time, seems a fair price with the chance the England winger could struggle to eclipse his fine personal form of last season. I could be wrong and he could blossom with Liverpool, the club his father purports to support, apparently. Either way his value would obviously decrease 12 months from now if he entered the final year of his contract at Villa and the extra time to recruit a replacement is probably more important to Alex McLeish that the extra few million pounds he could have potentially held out for. Fortunately for Downing, Kenny Dalglish's willingness to pay the going rate has spared him running the gauntlet of hate at Walsall, which Gareth Barry was subjected to three summers ago. And remember, Barry, who didn't get his move to Merseyside, boasted a decade's loyal service, rather than one special season and half a steady one. Instead of next Thursday's pre-season friendly at the Banks's Stadium, Downing will have to wait until Saturday December 17, when Liverpool visit Villa Park in the Premier League, to find out first hand precisely what the claret and blue faithful think of him. No need to bring the pin, Stewart, there's guaranteed to be plenty of needle. Mat Kendrick Great piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LambStockmix Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Downing is just a massive word removed isn't he? yeah spot mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley14 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Fee[ pretty let down tbh, i hoenstly believed what he said a few months ago and that he was happy. Obviously he had no intention of staying this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley14 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 If reports are true, and they seem to be pretty consistant, then signing Given, Parker and N'Zogbia would be a decent pick me up after this. Would make us stronger in 2 positions (GK & CM) and equal in the other imo (Wing). We would then need to find a replacement for Ash and we wouldnt be lookin too bad at all comapred to last season anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBGB Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 It's that Downing was happy to take Villa's money when few other top clubs would have touched him, but that any loyalty was conspicuous by its absence as soon as the first head-turning sniff of an offer materialised. This. I'm more disgusted than angry, to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Lions_Roar Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 It's that Downing was happy to take Villa's money when few other top clubs would have touched him, but that any loyalty was conspicuous by its absence as soon as the first head-turning sniff of an offer materialised. This. I'm more disgusted than angry, to be honest. Its like getting with the fat bird that no one wants and then when they lose a bit of weight and attract some new interested, shes off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.I.C.O. Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 I hope he trainwrecks all his mixes from now on, ungrateful word removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted July 14, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted July 14, 2011 Its like getting with the fat bird that no one wants and then when they lose a bit of weight and attract some new interested, shes off. b6bloke knows all about that (see breakups in off topic) what a week hes had, especially now ferret face Downing's done one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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