HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Liverpool agree Downing fee. Talk is £20m and addons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FA23 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Liverpool agree Downing fee. Talk is £20m and addons?pmsl.to think we bought niko & pienaar combined for less than 5m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 None of those were England internationals at the time.Bentley is a fairer comparison... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younger Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Not happy about the price but Downing will bring so much to the team.Remember how much more balanced we looked with Riera in the team, and he was sh*t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp* Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 £20M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Liverpool agree Downing fee. Talk is £20m and addons?We are so lucky Liverpool spent close to 90 mil on Average British players. They could have seriously left us and Arsenal and competed for the title with that amount of money. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJibbles Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Bentley what a failure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ashley goes with our blessing. Milner went with a groan. Barry went with annoyance but a begrudging acceptable.Downing can f*ck right off. £12m and 60k a week while he was injured for six months. Little shite turned up to his medical on crutches. Gives us one decent season and wants out...However I expect he'll do well there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEIRELES. Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Bentley what a failurelmao and spurs fans are talking about Downing. Good wingers in Prem are rare and Downing is one of them. But 20m is overly steep, I wouldnt have gone over the 11m mark. I guess Villa wanted to recoup there money and add on a few million because of his good performances of late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younger Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 So he rejected a proposed move to Arsenalpeak 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Q Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ridiculous. But like I said, they got 16 million for a player with one year left on his contract and who they paid 9 million for. Downing had two years left and they paid £12 million for him. Bleeeeh. To think we will probably sell Meireles/Aquilani for this sh*t as well, which is the most annoying thing. What is more annoying is that, this one doesn't make the same amount of sense that Carroll/Henderson does, as they will still have resale potential, because of their age. Downing on the other hand is going to be 27. Kenny and Commoli must really see him as a vital component. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Q Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 You know what's even more f*cked, a few years ago Rafa couldn't get 7 million to buy Johnson or £12 million for Alves. And now....lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 So he rejected a proposed move to ArsenalpeakWould never choose Arsenal over you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Ridiculous. But like I said, they got 16 million for a player with one year left on his contract and who they paid 9 million for. Downing had two years left and they paid £12 million for him. Bleeeeh. To think we will probably sell Meireles/Aquilani for this sh*t as well, which is the most annoying thing. What is most annoying is that, this one doesn't make the same amount of sense that Carroll/Henderson does, as they will still have resale potential, because of their age. Downing on the other hand is going to be 27. Kenny and Commoli must really see him as a vital component.The best time for new owners to spend big money is right away. No matter who it goes on (within reason) it adds to the momentum.In MON's first Summer he 'didn't see value' so signed Harewood, Knight, Carson, Curtis Davies and Mustapha Salifou.From then on we were never the 'it' club to join and were playing catchup when we were in a better position to spend big in future Summers.It's amazing how quick a club can nosedive once it loses that buzz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younger Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 mehCertain people would be happy starting 4 central midfielders next year.We need a balanced team, Downings statistics proves he will be a great asset.Moneyball signing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEIRELES. Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 You know what's even more f*cked, a few years ago Rafa couldn't get 7 million to buy Johnson or £12 million for Alves. And now....lol.He got 40m to sign a crock and a out of his depth striker who had a nack of playing sh*t for big clubs. ___ >> last year of the Rafa regime. Worst time ever as a Liverpool fan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younger Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhymer-2 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 So he rejected a proposed move to Arsenalpeaklol @ thinking we were ever interested in downing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp* Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 So he rejected a proposed move to Arsenalpeaklol @ thinking we were ever going to spend £20m on a player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HangTheDJ Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Downing handed in a transfer request yesterday according to local journo's.Arsenal's interest was very real, and they knew the price. The player didn't want to go there so it didn't go further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojo Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Villa have had our pants down, £20 f*ck*ng million?and people complained at Benitez for primarily looking abroad for targets, Stuart Downing has cost us about 2 million less than Torres did ffs.For £20 million I want to see match winners, the type you look to get the ball to when you're desperately in need of a goal. Downing isn't that imo but I'll be happy to be proved wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lieutenant Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 So Liverpool spent 75million GBP on 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojo Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 You know what's even more f*cked, a few years ago Rafa couldn't get 7 million to buy Johnson or £12 million for Alves. And now....lol.He got 40m to sign a crock and a out of his depth striker who had a nack of playing sh*t for big clubs. ___ >> last year of the Rafa regime. Worst time ever as a Liverpool fan.Please stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younger Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Arsenal's interest was very real, and they knew the price. The player didn't want to go there so it didn't go further.Must read for Liverpool fans thinking wtfGleaning any impressions from the feedback F365 receives from Liverpool fans is a dangerous business.However, while drawing conclusions is clearly highly unscientific and should not be taken as fact, the summer target that seems to have least convinced Liverpool fans is Stewart Downing.Quite why, I'm not sure.Downing is not an especially eye-catching signing. Well, apart from the £19million fee that Aston Villa are apparently demanding for his services. That would be very eye-catching indeed. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that his arrival would not excite neutral fans like the signing of, say, Juan Mata.Once a Twitter sceptic, I've recently come around to the 140-character world, and one of the key reasons was the ever-excellent OptaJoe. For stat fans, he's basically opium. And this bottomless pit of statty joy recently informed the world of the following:'135 - Stewart Downing has completed more crosses in open play than any other player in the Premier League over the last three seasons. Whip.'Then later...'34.4 - Stewart Downing has averaged 34.4 appearances over the past five Premier League seasons. Reliable.'And there, friends, is the reason Kenny Dalglish is so keen on the Aston Villa winger.While nobody seems absolutely sure how Dalglish will line up his Liverpool side next season, an adaptable 4-3-3 with different players to suit different opponents looks the favourite. Perhaps the only attacking player that one imagines being a permanent fixture in that system is Andy Carroll, largely because at present Liverpool don't have another centre-forward capable of leading the line. Luis Suarez does his best work a little deeper, while Dirk Kuyt works hard, bless him, but isn't exactly a target man and David Ngog...well, David Ngog is David Ngog.Therefore, much of Dalglish's strategy will be geared around exploiting Carroll's talents. It doesn't take a tactical genius to spot that much of Carroll's best work at Newcastle was done with Joey Barton pinging crosses onto his piratey head.So who do Liverpool have that can perform such a role? 'Nobody' is the short answer. Their current widemen are either inconsistent (Maxi), rebuilding their own game (Joe Cole), makeshift (Raul Meireles) or bloody awful (Milan Jovanovic). They currently do not have a winger in the side who can cross the ball. Charlie Adam's set pieces will help (particularly as he'll take over from Steven Gerrard on corner duty - a relief for Liverpool fans everywhere), but most of his work in open play will be done from a deep, central position.In some respects, Downing is a 'Moneyball' signing. Those of you that have read Michael Lewis's book will know that this approach is based on statistical objectivity, rather than subjective gut feelings or opinions. Instead of looking at a player's physical attributes, Billy Beane - the man around whom the book is based - would pay more attention to his statistics. Indeed, Beane would sometimes select players who his scouts actively advised against, as long as their numbers stacked up.Beane adopted the 'sabermetrics' (a method of analysing baseball statistics objectively) approach with the Oakland A's, a baseball team towards the lower end of the financial spectrum in the MLB, because every dollar had to be spent wisely. Liverpool aren't exactly in the paupers section, but their resources are much more limited than many in the Premier League, so the same theory applies. John W. Henry and the Boston Red Sox won a couple of World Series on the back of that approach, and it looks like the theory is being carried over to Anfield.In Downing, Liverpool are buying a statistically reliable footballer, who should in theory help get the best out of their current resources.And in fact, here's another stat from OptaJoe:'110 - Jordan Henderson, Luka Modric & Samir Nasri have all created 110 PL goalscoring chances since Aug 2009. Transferable.'So as much as we mocked the money paid for Henderson, there was at least logic to the signing. Liverpool already believe they have at least one man to put away the chances, so they're buying up the players they think can create them. It's all very simple really.£19million is an awful lot of money, but in many ways Downing represents a more solid, reliable investment than a man that offers more excitement. For a club whose support is so notoriously passionate, it's an interesting approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEIRELES. Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 My opinionIf we got a better striker and we clearly could and should have, the Prem would have been ours so easily. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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