Gone: Downing shows real loyalty to us

[billy_loes]

I can see the Arse getting him. Wenger has to spend and there aren't a fat lot of options out there.

[Richard]

cant blame him, dont like what he is doing but i doubt he likes what is happening at our club.

only way to stop it is sign decent players to try and keep the likes of downing and bent.

sign crap players such as cambell or old players on the way down like injured given or wes brown again shows which way we are heading and our players will leave.

Havde to say your opinion has shifted a bit over the course of the last 12 months, not criticising you for it it is just for me your position seems to be symptomatic of how a few supporters opinions have changed.

FWIW it is on a par now to where mine was and still is

On Downing I absolutely agree with you. To me people blaming him or saying he "owes us" are missing a huge point and directing their blame for this situation in entirely the wrong place.

are you on about my opinion of downing?

Nope your opinion on the overall aspect of the club really I think. But without wishing to go off topic I'll leave it there

[brummybloke]

I can't believe some folks are blaming our club for this happening. Using the old 'it's no wonder he wants out we keep selling our best players' argument. I'm not sure what the Villa are supposed to do ?

People talk about holding a 20m player against his will, sticking him in the reserves and letting him leave for nowt in 2 years time. Er, we're talking about 20M HERE. How is any business supposed to write 20m off ?

I'm sure some people think it's monopoly money!.

We didn't sell Barry, Milner, Young because WE needed the money. We sold them because THEY wanted out. In two instances they got tapped up and had gold waved under thir noses, and in the latter case the player was offered the chance to join one of the best clubs on the planet.

What are Villa supposed to do?, match the crazy wages City offered Milner and Barry?, we can't manage our finances as it is nevermind if we started paying players 100k a week!

Now we come to Downing. Don't give me all that 'he's off because we lack ambition' shite. He was 'seeing the bigger picture' and happy as larry a few months ago. He's been tapped up and told his weekly wage will probably double if he moves. Plain and simple.

Liverpool are a team with no chance of winning big honours anymore just like us, but they still have some nostalgia value assosciated with their name and always will have. Some players heads get turned by that, but more heads get turned by the wages on offer.

Someone claimed appointing McLeish as manager was the reason he wanted out, ABSOLUTE BALONEY!

If we'd appointed Ancelotti or Martinez it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference. He's been told what he wants to hear, BIG £££ week in week out. And that's all it takes.

He's just another in a long line, and there will be more in the future, leaving us for slightly bigger clubs, just as there will be players leaving the likes of Liverpool for bigger and better clubs. That's football.

Get rid, 20m and we're laughing all the way to the bank.

you not sure what we are supposed to do?

well before the manager circus we got rid of most of the flops costing shit loads of money in wages and have the chance to **** the rest of them off, leaving a new manager with the perfect opportunity to have his own team from the very first kick of the ball in the new season, not often you get that sort of chance, but we had it.

so that was fine and sorted then you could do the following

i think showing ambition by getting the best manager available is a good start (krulak disagrees though)

following a new managerial appointment ( which is normally the biggest sign of the direct the club wants to go in)

approaching all the best players on 2 years or less contracts and getting them tied down to longer deals, younger players who are doing the business improve their contracts and extend them.

sign top quality or the best you can possibly afford for each position

get rid of any players you think are causing disharmoney ion the squad once you have got in the players you require

this gives all the players you want to keep in the picture, they get a clear indication of what direction the club wants to go in.

downing was happy at the end of last season i presume because he thought the club would be going in a direction he was keen on

if you think it is purely downing has been tapped up then fine, however if for one second you dont think the top players are concerned about the lack of ambition shown by our club so far this close season then you have your head in the sand.

we WANTED to get him to sign a new contract, do you think it would be for less money than he is on now? im sure it would actualy be for MORE money than he is on now and as he was one of our most expensive players i would imagine his wage was around £40k and upwards to start with.

so that rules out purely money then.

possibly 1 person has mentioned shoving him in the reserves, everyone else has pretty much agreed that if he were to stay he would get his head down and try his best

so that rules that one out

im just wondering why you think appointing a world class manager would make no difference to any of the players such as downing who we wanted to sign an improved contract?

[SteveMac]

Would be great if we could replace Ash and Downing with 2 from Kranjcar, N'Zogbia and Adam Johnson.

Personally would prefer Kranjcar and Johnson, but if Man City won't sell AJ, then N'Zogbia will be fine. Will then use those 2 with Marc and we will be fine.

Needs to be at LEAST £20M for Downing, if Liverpool won't pay, we should pi55 them off by offering £10M for Suarez

Just a random thought, could Delph or Bannan play left wing? Think Delph has played there for Leeds??

[brummybloke]

cant blame him, dont like what he is doing but i doubt he likes what is happening at our club.

only way to stop it is sign decent players to try and keep the likes of downing and bent.

sign crap players such as cambell or old players on the way down like injured given or wes brown again shows which way we are heading and our players will leave.

Havde to say your opinion has shifted a bit over the course of the last 12 months, not criticising you for it it is just for me your position seems to be symptomatic of how a few supporters opinions have changed.

FWIW it is on a par now to where mine was and still is

On Downing I absolutely agree with you. To me people blaming him or saying he "owes us" are missing a huge point and directing their blame for this situation in entirely the wrong place.

are you on about my opinion of downing?

Nope your opinion on the overall aspect of the club really I think. But without wishing to go off topic I'll leave it there

ahh i misread, yeah disallusioned and betrayed comes to mind in regards to the people in charge.

from being 90% behind what they did to 5% in the space of 2 months

[Stu_The_Villan]

I can't believe some folks are blaming our club for this happening. Using the old 'it's no wonder he wants out we keep selling our best players' argument. I'm not sure what the Villa are supposed to do ?

People talk about holding a 20m player against his will, sticking him in the reserves and letting him leave for nowt in 2 years time. Er, we're talking about 20M HERE. How is any business supposed to write 20m off ?

I'm sure some people think it's monopoly money!.

We didn't sell Barry, Milner, Young because WE needed the money. We sold them because THEY wanted out. In two instances they got tapped up and had gold waved under thir noses, and in the latter case the player was offered the chance to join one of the best clubs on the planet.

What are Villa supposed to do?, match the crazy wages City offered Milner and Barry?, we can't manage our finances as it is nevermind if we started paying players 100k a week!

Now we come to Downing. Don't give me all that 'he's off because we lack ambition' shite. He was 'seeing the bigger picture' and happy as larry a few months ago. He's been tapped up and told his weekly wage will probably double if he moves. Plain and simple.

Liverpool are a team with no chance of winning big honours anymore just like us, but they still have some nostalgia value assosciated with their name and always will have. Some players heads get turned by that, but more heads get turned by the wages on offer.

Someone claimed appointing McLeish as manager was the reason he wanted out, ABSOLUTE BALONEY!

If we'd appointed Ancelotti or Martinez it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference. He's been told what he wants to hear, BIG £££ week in week out. And that's all it takes.

He's just another in a long line, and there will be more in the future, leaving us for slightly bigger clubs, just as there will be players leaving the likes of Liverpool for bigger and better clubs. That's football.

Get rid, 20m and we're laughing all the way to the bank.

Great post that i 100% agree with.

[Shillzz]

Would be great if we could replace Ash and Downing with 2 from Kranjcar, N'Zogbia and Adam Johnson.

Personally would prefer Kranjcar and Johnson, but if Man City won't sell AJ, then N'Zogbia will be fine. Will then use those 2 with Marc and we will be fine.

Needs to be at LEAST £20M for Downing, if Liverpool won't pay, we should pi55 them off by offering £10M for Suarez

Just a random thought, could Delph or Bannan play left wing? Think Delph has played there for Leeds??

Despite being one of my favourite players, even I will concede that Bannan is piss poor on the wing, as he demonstrated in the Carling cup last year.

[mykeyb]

Well we need to buy before we sell Downing or clubs will know we have brought in £34 million + and we will have to spend it.

Buy before you sell should be the way we go forward or we will get stung or worse miss out on targets

[lexicon]

One thing that we can't forget is that Liverpool want to weaken us by purchasing Downing. We aren't an immediate threat to them but we are in the area just after that, in the periphery. If they give us a lot for him and pay over the odds, then we'll have even more to spend on re-strengthening the squad. It's clear that they are trying to use their reputation to unsettle the player and force him into handing in a request, by offering such pissy amounts that we won't accept.

[HackneyVillain]

Buy before you sell should be the way we go forward or we will get stung or worse miss out on targets

Couldn't agree more. Move Downing on but get replacements in for him and Ashley first.

[Stringy]

Liverpool aint going to pay the £25m that we want!

Its only £19m that we want and I bet liverpool will pay it.

Aston Villa name their price for Downing

Aston Villa have slapped a price tag of £19million on winger Stewart Downing, Press Association Sport understands.

Villa have rejected a second bid - of around £15m - for the England international from Liverpool.

New Villa manager Alex McLeish would like to keep hold of Downing after losing the services of Ashley Young to Manchester United.

But if the player is to leave, Villa will hold out for what they consider to be a fair price for the former Middlesbrough player.

A source close to Villa said: 'The club have made it known what they regard as a fair price for Stewart Downing, if he is to be sold.'

Liverpool had an initial offer of around £12m turned down for Downing - the price Villa paid for him when he moved from Boro two years ago.

Downing has two years remaining of his contract but made it clear last month that he would not be signing a new deal at this juncture.

He told Press Association Sport: 'My agent had a meeting with the club - just one meeting - and he just felt it was the right time not to sign my contract.

'I've still got two years to go, so I've still got a long time to go, so I just decided to leave it as it is.

'Will I be at Villa next season? I'm not sure.'

Downing is due to report to pre-season training on Friday with Villa. He endured an injury-hit first campaign after signing for them when still recovering from a broken foot.

But last season Downing was in outstanding form and was Villa's player of the year.

LINK

EDIT: Another link HERE

It's only that article that speculates we have "slapped" a £19M price tag on him. Oh, and a "source close to Villa" saying we have made it clear what the price is.

[b6bloke]

brought him with a broken leg, showed faith in him and he is in the england squad. The england squad alone dictates 20 million as his contract isnt up

[juanpabloangel18]

Downing can get the **** out of here for free as far as I'm concerned. Ungrateful coward

[Super-Villan]

I'd sell him for £19m is he hands in a transfer request.

I wouldn't have the the anmosity towards him that some here seem to though. He's done well for us, but he's seen Young leave and McLeish join and he's seen Liverpool spending big and finishing last season looking like a decent side again. Any player with ambition would be interested in switching given the chance. It's sad, but I don't blame him.

I don't think it's about money either. I suspect we could and would match whatever Liverpool's offer is there.

[HackneyVillain]

I don't think it's about money either. I suspect we could and would match whatever Liverpool's offer is there.

I'm sure they can pay a lot more than we can. A couple of examples - Jovanovic is on 120k a week, I think Joe Cole is on 90k a week. I suspect Downing would be on about 100k and can't see us offering that.

[Ulver]

I wouldn't have the the anmosity towards him that some here seem to though. He's done well for us, but he's seen Young leave and McLeish join and he's seen Liverpool spending big and finishing last season looking like a decent side again. Any player with ambition would be interested in switching given the chance. It's sad, but I don't blame him.

What a load of weak watery nonsense.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

I wouldn't have the the anmosity towards him that some here seem to though. He's done well for us, but he's seen Young leave and McLeish join and he's seen Liverpool spending big and finishing last season looking like a decent side again. Any player with ambition would be interested in switching given the chance. It's sad, but I don't blame him.

What a load of weak watery nonsense.

Theres lot of truth in it tho.

The appointment of such a poor manager has sent out a massive signal to everyone.

[Super-Villan]

I don't think it's about money either. I suspect we could and would match whatever Liverpool's offer is there.

I'm sure they can pay a lot more than we can. A couple of examples - Jovanovic is on 120k a week, I think Joe Cole is on 90k a week. I suspect Downing would be on about 100k and can't see us offering that.

Well they have players on higher wages, I'm sure, but neither of us really know what he could negotiate out of them.

For the sake of argument, say they were prepared to pay him £10-£20k a week more than we were. That just makes it even more of a no brainer that he'd move. If any player turned down £10-£20k a week extra to move to a bigger club that was closer to their home town...well, I wouldn't want somebody that stupid playing for Aston Villa.

[jimbojames]

Shame he wants to go but his price is only going to go down after this summer so I say cash in now. He's had a good season but don't think he is irreplaceable.

[Stu_The_Villan]

If they give us a lot for him and pay over the odds, then we'll have even more to spend on re-strengthening the squad. It's clear that they are trying to use their reputation to unsettle the player and force him into handing in a request, by offering such pissy amounts that we won't accept.

Agree.

Reports today suggest they have bid 15m and we have rejected. Is that a piss take or what? They must KNOW we wouldnt accept that. Its only 3m on top of what we paid for him when he was crippled ffs! Its obviously them playing silly fekkers and thinking they can get the player to dictate how much he goes for by him handing in a transfer request.

And another thing....apparently, we have named a 'reasonable' price for him in the region of 19m. Now, in my book, even 19m aint enough. But the question i ask is why the fook should we be reasonable about it? We should be making these **** pay through their noses. They arent our mates and we shouldnt be doing them any favours!!

I still want him gone though. And i agree with the point about getting replacements BEFORE we sell him!