Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rip Van We Go Again on July 13, 2011, 09:13:07 AM
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sportinglife.com
McLeish 'Downing must keep the right attitude.'
Alex McLeish expects Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing to maintain the right attitude and professionalism if his hopes of a move to Liverpool fail to materialise.
Villa have rejected bids of £12million and £15million from the Reds for Downing and McLeish wants the England international to remain at the midlands club.
McLeish says he overcame failing to secure a move to Manchester United as a player and would expect the same response from Downing if he is still at Villa next season.
He said: "I've spoken to Stewart, I've told him I don't want to sell him.
"There's an obvious distraction there for him but he's been a credit to himself and applied himself in the right way and worked his socks off in training. I don't see a problem professionally.
"Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to sign me for Manchester United when I was at Aberdeen and that wasn't possible in the end.
"That was a big disappointment but I got my head down and worked and I don't doubt Stewart has the character to get through this is he stays at the club.
"It's part of your growing up as a footballer."
Villa will demand £19-20million if it becomes apparent they cannot retain Downing, who has two years remaining of his current contract.
McLeish is optimistic of signing a new keeper to replace Brad Friedel in the near future with Shay Given expected to complete a £3.5 million move from Manchester City.
He said: "We certainly need a keeper and we are making progress. We would like it to happen a bit quicker but we are moving forward."
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I agree with McLeish he has to work hard and give his all to us if the move don't happen.
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Can't see the point in keeping a miffed player for the sake of another year. We all know he'll go next summer anyway so its not saying anything apart from some inpotent "we're not a selling club, honest!" statement. Only point keeping him would be if we knew he was here till his contract ran out and thats not gonna happen
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I agree with McLeish he has to work hard and give his all to us if the move don't happen.
I agree too, anyone else?
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Downing will want to keep his place for the Euros next summer so if he doesn't get his move he'll have to put a shift in for us anyway.
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Can't see the point in keeping a miffed player for the sake of another year. We all know he'll go next summer anyway so its not saying anything apart from some inpotent "we're not a selling club, honest!" statement. Only point keeping him would be if we knew he was here till his contract ran out and thats not gonna happen
I don't know. Friedel, Young, Downing and NRC weren't spectacular last season, but they were pretty reliable performers and pivotal in keeping us in the PL. Getting rid of them one by one and hoping that the likes of Ireland, Delph and Albrighton will replace them adequately in no time seems naive. Even if the club manage to identify and fund a viable replacement, there is no guarantee that the replacement will not need time to adapt or won't be a flop alltogether.
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Lets hope Liverpoo play the bloody money..
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When Barry's move to Liverpool failed to materialise he still gave us a top season and i don't see it being any different for Downing.That said, I think Liverpool will stump up the cash and he'll be off.
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Can't see the point in keeping a miffed player for the sake of another year. We all know he'll go next summer anyway so its not saying anything apart from some inpotent "we're not a selling club, honest!" statement. Only point keeping him would be if we knew he was here till his contract ran out and thats not gonna happen
We keep him because we have a value for him which has yet to be met. Are you suggesting we just roll over and let him go for whatever Liverpool offer?
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When Barry's move to Liverpool failed to materialise he still gave us a top season
No he didn't, he was going through the motions for at least half of the season.
As captain he could and should have led us into the champions league but he was mooning off into the distance and it seemed to rub off on a few others too.
What's more he's never really recovered and been mostly anonymous since. It's sad really.
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Theres a difference here. When Liverpool wanted Barry, we basically said you can't have him.
The comments of "if it fails to materalise" is basically saying if Liverpool or someone else doesn't cough up how much we want, he won't be going anywhere.
If he doesn't want to play for us, let's get shot of him now while we can get a decent transfer fee.
The thing that annoys me more than anything in this, is that 2 months ago Downing was doing the web chat thing on the official site (conveniently 24 hours after committing himself to the club) saying how happy he was and how he could see the bigger picture at the Villa.
Don't reckon he would do one of these chats with the fans now, do you ?
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When Barry's move to Liverpool failed to materialise he still gave us a top season
No he didn't, he was going through the motions for at least half of the season.
As captain he could and should have led us into the champions league but he was mooning off into the distance and it seemed to rub off on a few others too.
What's more he's never really recovered and been mostly anonymous since. It's sad really.
Totally disagree with that
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Really? Oh well, never mind. Anybody else think Barry gave us a "top season" before he fucked off to Man City?
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Lets hope Liverpoo play the bloody money..
I agree. Over-rated.
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I would say it was somewhere in the middle of what you two were saying. I wouldn't have said he was going through the motions, but he certainly didn't give us a top season compared to seasons past.
I would certainly agree that he hasn't been half the player in his time at Citeh though.
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Theres a difference here. When Liverpool wanted Barry, we basically said you can't have him.
Not how I remember it. Liverpool knew the asking price, but were unwilling (or unable) to pay it.
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sportinglife.com
McLeish 'Downing must keep the right attitude.'
Alex McLeish expects Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing to maintain the right attitude and professionalism if his hopes of a move to Liverpool fail to materialise.
Villa have rejected bids of £12million and £15million from the Reds for Downing and McLeish wants the England international to remain at the midlands club.
McLeish says he overcame failing to secure a move to Manchester United as a player and would expect the same response from Downing if he is still at Villa next season.
He said: "I've spoken to Stewart, I've told him I don't want to sell him.
"There's an obvious distraction there for him but he's been a credit to himself and applied himself in the right way and worked his socks off in training. I don't see a problem professionally.
"Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to sign me for Manchester United when I was at Aberdeen and that wasn't possible in the end.
"That was a big disappointment but I got my head down and worked and I don't doubt Stewart has the character to get through this is he stays at the club.
"It's part of your growing up as a footballer."
Villa will demand £19-20million if it becomes apparent they cannot retain Downing, who has two years remaining of his current contract.
McLeish is optimistic of signing a new keeper to replace Brad Friedel in the near future with Shay Given expected to complete a £3.5 million move from Manchester City.
He said: "We certainly need a keeper and we are making progress. We would like it to happen a bit quicker but we are moving forward."
That's a bit gay???
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Really? Oh well, never mind. Anybody else think Barry gave us a "top season" before he fucked off to Man City?
No I do not. Totally agree with you
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@Football_Agent9 Downing is the way it has been. Bid has been accepted. £18.5m
Sure...
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I'd take £18m and a promising, skilful player who they may have on their books.
Fucked if I know much about their fringe players though.
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I'd take £18m and a promising, skilful player who they may have on their books.
Fucked if I know much about their fringe players though.
as long as the "promising, skilful player " is not that Jonjo Ikea Shelving or whatever his name is, very poor from what I have seen of him.
UTV
The Doc
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I'd take £18 million and Wayne Bridge, then bring in N'Zogbia and Rodellega, three players who would add a lot to the team and squad.
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Theres a difference here. When Liverpool wanted Barry, we basically said you can't have him.
Not how I remember it. Liverpool knew the asking price, but were unwilling (or unable) to pay it.
Sounds about right.
The manager and Chief exec were singing from different hymn sheets and it turned out the funds weren't available. Whether they would otherwise have paid up, I don't know. But my guess is they would.
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I'd take £18 million and Wayne Bridge, then bring in N'Zogbia and Rodellega, three players who would add a lot to the team and squad.
Wayne Bridge doesn't play for Liverpool
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Fee agreed with Liverpool apparently.
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I wonder what it is about Villa that makes Liverpool so reluctant to meet our prices.
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I wonder what it is about Villa that makes Liverpool so reluctant to meet our prices.
I don't think it's personal.
You drive a hard bargain and so you should.
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When Barry's move to Liverpool failed to materialise he still gave us a top season
Did he?!! He is/was a quality player but I remember a number of occassions where his heart did not appear to be in it. Fulham away in particular really pissed me off. Petrov was on his own on the centre as Barry was stood with his hands on his hips in the centre circle (I mean literally rather than metaphorically). Whilst he continued to be good to excellent on the ball I'm convinced he increasingly played for himself rather than the team.
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I wonder what it is about Villa that makes Liverpool so reluctant to meet our prices.
I don't think it's personal.
You drive a hard bargain and so you should.
You reckon Liverpool drove a hard bargain for Andy Carroll?
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I wonder what it is about Villa that makes Liverpool so reluctant to meet our prices.
I don't think it's personal.
You drive a hard bargain and so you should.
Christ, how patronizing is that.
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I wonder what it is about Villa that makes Liverpool so reluctant to meet our prices.
I don't think it's personal.
You drive a hard bargain and so you should.
You reckon Liverpool drove a hard bargain for Andy Carroll?
75 million for Carroll, Henderson and Downing? They must be tough negotiators up there.
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75 million for Carroll, Henderson and Downing? They must be tough negotiators up there.
They got £50M for Torres.
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75 million for Carroll, Henderson and Downing? They must be tough negotiators up there.
They got £50M for Torres.
If you sold your house for 300k would you spend 200k on a Vauxhall Nova? (Apologies to owners of said vehicle.)
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Well Mcleish sorted that didnt he - Downing didnt change his attitude!
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Well Mcleish sorted that didnt he - Downing didnt change his attitude!
He di actually, he handed in a transfer request.
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75 million for Carroll, Henderson and Downing? They must be tough negotiators up there.
They got £50M for Torres.
If you sold your house for 300k would you spend 200k on a Vauxhall Nova? (Apologies to owners of said vehicle.)
I heard that the price for Torres was set in reference to the price for Carroll - ie Liverpool identified the Divvy Ponytail as the replacement, and told Chelsea Torres was 15m more than whatever they had to pay.