Stewart Downing is almost certain to be gone from West Ham before the transfer window closes.
It’s one of the facts of footballing life that when such strong “rumours” start about player movements it’s a near inevitability it will happen.
The usual fencing and haggling on price will go on of course – appearances have to be maintained – but our understanding is that the 30 year old has been offered around £70k a week to return to his ‘home’ and that HE WANTS TO GO!
ClaretandHugh was told by a top Irons insider: “Steve Gibson (Boro chairman) clearly sees him as the marquee signing and a player who can lead Boro back to the Premier League. However, whilst it’s a huge deal for Stewart but not West Ham.”
However, that the issues involved are being discussed so freely suggests that it won’t be long before Downing does indeed return home with the Hammers recouping something in the region of £7 million for him.
The Hammers will realise that whilst they are building a deeper squad, Downing is an unlikely starter with the likes of Dimitri Pyet, Chiek Kouyate Pedro Obiang, and probably Alex Song in the squad.
And at 30 years of age £7 million will allow Slaven Bilic to identify the new attacking midfielder he wants as mentioned on a number of occasions.
We could be wrong but we expect a Downing departure.
£7M for Downing is not a bad shout, good luck to him, if he goes mo when he goes, the only thing that bothers me is another English player leaving..
#COYI
The price seems to be going down 2 days ago it was reported we were offered £6 mil
And had turned it down
Today it been reported the new bid is £5.5 mil and we have turned it down,
We can get a very good 25 year old winger for that money and probably cheaper wages
If he can get £70k a week from his home town for 3 years he should go and good luck to him
This was the issue being over looked all along by people saying the club were idiots for selling him.They didnt take into account that the lad might want to go as well!
He knows the writings on the wall that he will probably not be an automatic pick this season.Let him go home to be the big cheese up there,we get some dough for a 30yr old to put towards someone younger 😉
and another Sam’s pet who’s leaving… strange thing,… 😉
I’d be sorry to see him go but £7M for a player of his age, even one who was as good as he was on occasions last season, is good business. No one can surely blame him for wanting to return to his home town club to end his career, particularly with the money on offer, so good luck to him. An English replacement though please, I’m struggling to pronounce all these foreign names…..
Wouldn’t say he was ##########’s pet. He is still a good player, when played in the right position at the start of last season he showed what he is capable of.
if we can get a good return on him we should take it.
£70k per week in the Championship? Are you sure? How the hell can ‘Boro afford to pay Stewart that much? And what about the club statement ‘Downing is going nowhere’?
If a club says a player is going nowhere it normally means they are going somewhere,lol
My only problem is that the draw of returning to the beautiful historic town of Middlesbrough stops the bidding war but as is the modern way if he wants to go he’ll go