Like with Assaidi and indeed Kuyt we should look for the cheap deals from Holland. Georginio Wijnaldum, Lens maybe.
Villa would take him. I think there would be quite a few takers Anyone from last season that finished 11th in the league and lower
Villa would have him back and I think perhaps Stoke might be interested. In fact, I could see two of our ex-players combining to score against us, if he did go there. 'Downing crossing for Crouch to nod past a sprawling Reina'. You heard it here first.
There is no way Villa fans would want him back though because of the way he left the club. It would be like us with Torres, Meireles or Mascherano, they all left in the wrong way! Downing had said he was committed to the Villa cause only a few months before saying he wanted to leave to join us, it didn't go down very well Agreed. Same for West Ham...
Charlie Adams 40 yard pass to Downing... nah. Neither the ball or target will reach there destination. Charlie Adam must love hoofing it to Crouch.
Replacement?... How's about spending the money and making Sahin permanent. Not to big to admit I was wrong about him, turning out to be a great player, fills a hole left by a certain Mr. Alonso.
This thread should be called 'Taxi for Downing' as it seems we all agree we already have replacements, but the money could be used elsewhere. Sahin on a permanent would be nice and a striker.
I'm struggling to understand this thread - in order to discuss a replacement, we need to see something worth replacing. As far as I can see, Downing has already been replaced - Assaidi, Suso, Sterling - so this is a stupid argument. The only question is 'Can Downing even do enough between now and January to even spark any interest in the transfer market?' I'm not sure he is even going to earn the chance from BR on the pitch - he's not even getting game time starting against teams in the CoCup or Europa. If he's not starting or even getting a decent amount of cameo time, how are we going to persuade anyone to part with money to take him off our hands... I agree with other sentiment here - we need an athletic finisher who will be able to play BR's way and harass the hell out of the opposition back line (co-incidentally, this has to be the ONLY reason why Carroll got loaned out...). Not sure who we'll be looking at, but I hope to hell it doesn't turn out to be Ba - 27 and with a questionable reliability over his knee...
if downing is sold in jan we will need another player to replace him as our squad is tiny and already 4 or 5 players short, if sterling,assaidi etc get injured who is going to cover them? i dont understand why people cant see how wafer thin our squad is in some areas, we dont just need a striker(although first priority) we need cover in other areas also. its all well and good getting rid of players who are surplus i.e kuyt,maxi etc but you have bring in players to replace them and players who can cover other positions. when downing is sold do you think brendan is going to hold on to the money and play more youngsters or buy other players to add to the squad.
Technically Kuyt and Maxi have been replaced by Borini and Sterling. Assaidi can easily replace Downing. The area we are left short is with Bellamy and Carroll. Suarez can play on a wing also so I don't think it is necessarily important to add depth there.
I think a striker is priority. We don't have many people who can play the CF role, unlike the wings which has a few options plus Suarez can play there as well.
Hopefully, people will forget how bad he has been for us but remember the name Downing who played for Boro, Villa and England Agree about not wanting Ba too
