Liverpool’s bid to sign Aston Villa Stewart Downing has reach a sticky point with Villa boss Alex McLeish insisting that the winger is not for sale.
“He had a magnificent season last year and really came to full maturity as a top player,” McLeish told the Birmingham Mail.
“I understand why there’s teams interested in him and that is what happens when you play well consistently.
“His performances last season were top drawer. That’s why he’s not for sale. The club don’t want to sell him.
“I spoke to him briefly last week and I intend speaking to him again when all the lads are back in for training.”
It is thought that Downing is high on Kenny Dalglish’s priority list as we made a £15million bid for him and it was rejected by Villa. An offer of £20million may just tempt Villa to sell Downing but judging from McLeish’s statements, no price will be enough to sell Downing.
But a club saying they will never sell their player has never stopped a player from leaving. We saw that with Fernando Torres. All Downing has to do if he really wants to leave Aston Villa and join Liverpool is hand in a transfer request.
Villa may reject his request and demand him to stay but then they will have a very unhappy player in their squad so it would be best to just let him go and use the cash on another player.
I guess Downing now holds the cards for a potential move to Liverpool. All Liverpool can do now is try go back to Villa with a higher bid and hope that it is an offer too good for them to turn down, and they allow us to sign Downing. Or if that fails, Downing just needs to tell them that he wants to leave.
Problem with players these days they dont like to hand in a transfer request as they lose their 15% of the deal.Must be hard for multi millionaire players to miss out on 15%!!!!!!
Problem with this is that if Downing puts in a transfer request, Liverpool could very legitimately put in a reduced offer of say £11m. As essentially they would be trying to sign a player who wants to leave. A large chunk of the £4m could then act as a sweetner to the player directly.
Mata !!!! Need some impressive player…
Downing should ask for a transfer and then we will make a new offer. Not the other way around mate!
downing should hand in request if not we should go for mata is young
He will come for an eventual £17.5m. Mark my woids.
kenny dalgish is the funnier version of avram grant.i am no longer supporting liverpool,they’re going downwards.i’m joining chelsea
@ DAN: Do u know what YNWA means.I hope u don’t …and u don’t deserve as well…..No room for cheap mentality fans over here….move your a*s out to a cheaper club like Chelsea.
Liverpool should just forget about signing downing. He is not worth 20million pounds. Lets go for mata or nzogbia. They have more pace than downing.
Being honest I don’t like the idea of getting a player on those terms. We would not be happy if it was a liverpool player
Dan, i dont thinks a single penny that you ever support Liverpool. You’re Chelsea fan since your mom pregnant of you. And I bet for sure Chelsea will sack their coach again mid season and sale Torres the next summer.
Mata, Turan, ribbery, hazard , jOhnson…nope!
We want downing.. Lol great :/
Ok £12m and it’s a deal considering young went for £15m
And young is much better…
But nOt a penny more!!!
nzogbia looked like the best wide player last season ..very dangerous attacker..didn’t see enough of him to know how consistent he is though?
Mcleish aint gonna budge,he knows that there isn’t a winger out there good enough to replace him with the limited transfer money he has availble.So Downing will stay at villa for another season at least.
Joe – Nzogbia ahead of downing all day long mate!