SSN: "Downing won't commit to Villa"

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

well If downing goes Arsenal  maybe Nzogbia will go Liverpool...

If and I hope we are intereted in NZogbia we must be smart and not sell Downing until we have got him or a suitable replacement.

Perhaps the combination of Albrighton and Ireland is the replacement...sorry if that seems negative. But I can't help thinking that purse strings will be bloody tight! As a Villa fan I have got used to expecting the worst so that when something better actally happens I can feel more optimistic. I'm sure there's a technical term for this....

[charleeco7]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Arsenal story was a load of rubbish. Didn't the same rumour appear when Liverpool were in for Barry?

[Ad@m]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Arsenal story was a load of rubbish. Didn't the same rumour appear when Liverpool were in for Barry?

Same here.  Arsenal have never, ever spent anywhere near £18m on a player and they've bought much better players than Downing.

Hopefully this is someone very clever at the club engineering an imaginary auction by feeding stupid journalists duff info.

[citizenDJ]

According to OptaJoe, Downing has provided eight premier league assists since August 2009. Funny, I though it would have been more than that (I know that stats like that don't paint the whole picture). One fewer than Walcott, it says here.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I think Wenger has been frightened to spend big on English players since he got his fingers burnt with Francis Jeffers.

I doubt he'd want Downing, but there is pressure on him to start spending money rather than bringing players through.

[TimTheVillain]

It's getting stupid - painful in fact and disruptive.

AM - sell the bloke to the highest bidder next week and get N'Zogbia in before someone else does.

Wish Downing would hand a transfer request in ..... we'd all know where we were.

[The Man With A Stick]

Wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal were to offer player(s) in exchange (Arshavin perhaps?) rather than a straight cash deal.  With their new owner though, you never know.

Haven't they got enough bloody non-tackling fairies on their cake already though, what do they want another one for?

[TimTheVillain]

Bit of Tweeing coming from Liverpool Echo that Liverpool making statement re. The enigmatic Mr Downing shortly .

[Holy Trinity]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Arsenal story was a load of rubbish. Didn't the same rumour appear when Liverpool were in for Barry?

Same here.  Arsenal have never, ever spent anywhere near £18m on a player and they've bought much better players than Downing.

Hopefully this is someone very clever at the club engineering an imaginary auction by feeding stupid journalists duff info.

didnt ashavin cost 20?

[Ad@m]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Arsenal story was a load of rubbish. Didn't the same rumour appear when Liverpool were in for Barry?

Same here.  Arsenal have never, ever spent anywhere near £18m on a player and they've bought much better players than Downing.

Hopefully this is someone very clever at the club engineering an imaginary auction by feeding stupid journalists duff info.

didnt ashavin cost 20?

£15m - he's their record transfer and that was on the back of a European Championships where Arshavin had ran the show for Russia.  Downing's nowhere near the player Arshavin was at that point in time.

[Holy Trinity]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Arsenal story was a load of rubbish. Didn't the same rumour appear when Liverpool were in for Barry?

Same here.  Arsenal have never, ever spent anywhere near £18m on a player and they've bought much better players than Downing.

Hopefully this is someone very clever at the club engineering an imaginary auction by feeding stupid journalists duff info.

didnt ashavin cost 20?

£15m - he's their record transfer and that was on the back of a European Championships where Arshavin had ran the show for Russia.  Downing's nowhere near the player Arshavin was at that point in time.

if he cost 15 he certainly isnt there record! i think he must have been 15 with add ons if hes there record, officially jose antonio reyes cost 17.5 million so he's there record and dare i say it at the time not as good as downing. still 20 million is possible for them to throw in a player as a make weight 15 + bentner or eboue or almunia or ramsey theres a few good youths there aswel so dont rule anything out, especially as ashavin, nasri, fabregas, bentner, almunia, eboue all likely to leave and clichy already gone to city they are going to tear the squad up and try again downing and gerviniho either side of a 4 5 1 would suit there playing style

[Ad@m]

if he cost 15 he certainly isnt there record! i think he must have been 15 with add ons if hes there record, officially jose antonio reyes cost 17.5 million so he's there record and dare i say it at the time not as good as downing. still 20 million is possible for them to throw in a player as a make weight 15 + bentner or eboue or almunia or ramsey theres a few good youths there aswel so dont rule anything out, especially as ashavin, nasri, fabregas, bentner, almunia, eboue all likely to leave and clichy already gone to city they are going to tear the squad up and try again downing and gerviniho either side of a 4 5 1 would suit there playing style

Reyes was £8m or £10.5m (depending on who's report you belive) plus add ons.  Recent reports say that Wiltord cost them more (£13m) and was their transfer record until they signed Arshavin.

See here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/4438430/Arsenal-wait-for-Andrei-Arshavin-transfer-to-be-ratified-by-Premier-League.html

And here http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/arsenal-could-smash-transfer-record-for-arshavin-1365851.html

I still doubt they'll spend that much on Downing.  Only Liverpool and Man City throw silly money around.

[frank]

According to OptaJoe, Downing has provided eight premier league assists since August 2009. Funny, I though it would have been more than that (I know that stats like that don't paint the whole picture). One fewer than Walcott, it says here.

I think I saw on SSN that Downing won 75% of his tackles last season. So that would be 75% of 4.

[LeeB]

According to OptaJoe, Downing has provided eight premier league assists since August 2009. Funny, I though it would have been more than that (I know that stats like that don't paint the whole picture). One fewer than Walcott, it says here.

I think I saw on SSN that Downing won 75% of his tackles last season. So that would be 75% of 4.

75% of 4-kall more like.

[Risso]

According to OptaJoe, Downing has provided eight premier league assists since August 2009. Funny, I though it would have been more than that (I know that stats like that don't paint the whole picture). One fewer than Walcott, it says here.

I think I saw on SSN that Downing won 75% of his tackles last season. So that would be 75% of 4.

75% of 4-kall more like.

Tidy.