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A moment of silence for Downing's career


Spoony

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I do think there's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance here. Do people actually forget how brilliant he was for us the season Liverpool saw fit to spend £20m on him? We were more gutted to lose Downing than we were to lose Young. Some of that may have been the differing circumstances but a lot of it was genuinely to do with the contribution he made that season for us and the player we were losing. Downing is not an average footballer. For whatever reason it didn't work out in the not-exactly-ideal situation at Liverpool and he began to show glimpses towards the end of the season. I hope he has a similar career at WHU as he had at Anfield but if I had to guess, based on what he did beforehand and what he did at the end for Liverpool, I suspect he might be a lot better under Big Huge Fat Sam.

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I dont think he was that good. he was best of a bad bunch in which we struggled all season. on radio other day they were saying Downing is a poor winger and his best season at Villa was on right of 3 man attack cutting in and dont think Sam will play that way

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I dont think he was that good. he was best of a bad bunch in which we struggled all season. on radio other day they were saying Downing is a poor winger and his best season at Villa was on right of 3 man attack cutting in and dont think Sam will play that way

There was an interview with Alardyce saying he was going to play him in the role he had here rather than the way Liverpool were using him.

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I do think there's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance here. Do people actually forget how brilliant he was for us the season Liverpool saw fit to spend £20m on him? We were more gutted to lose Downing than we were to lose Young. Some of that may have been the differing circumstances but a lot of it was genuinely to do with the contribution he made that season for us and the player we were losing. Downing is not an average footballer. For whatever reason it didn't work out in the not-exactly-ideal situation at Liverpool and he began to show glimpses towards the end of the season. I hope he has a similar career at WHU as he had at Anfield but if I had to guess, based on what he did beforehand and what he did at the end for Liverpool, I suspect he might be a lot better under Big Huge Fat Sam.

Yeah this.

 

At Boro too he was pretty handy. I certainly remember him tearing us a new one playing in CM for boro.

 

Would not be surprised at all to see him have a decent season this year

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I personally was more disappointed to see Young leave then Downing in that summer of 2011. Even though Young in his last 2 seasons spent lots of time diving around.

 

Downing's performances were slightly above average in 2010/2011. The best of a bad bunch. Villa's form for most of that season was shite, and it was only that impressive run in the last 5 games that made the league position respectable. Young's performances from 2007-2009 were extremely good, and in some months best in the league.

 

To me Young was a bigger loss then Downing, but Milner was a bigger loss then both.

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Downing's performances were slightly above average in 2010/2011.

No. Just no. There is so much wrong in that claim that light bends around it.

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Oh sorry Downing was absolutely world class in 2010/2011. As good as Mcgrath 92/93, Yorke 95/96 and Young 2008. Better?

About halfway between that and your previous statement ;)

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Apart from Gerrard, he was the 2nd highest fantasy scorer for Liverpool last season. So he wasn't as bad as our blinkers might make out. Granted the likes of Coutinho with a full season would've caught him no problem, but I think at £5m he's great value for the Hammers. We know what he's capable of and on his day he's a £20m player so if the Shammers can get a fraction of what he can do then they'll have a good player on their hands.

He's not a £20m player on his day, we knew that when we sold him. His max value is what we paid for him around £12m. I think west ham have got a good deal here, £5m for a player isn't not really a big risk.

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