Liverpool Wrap Up £20m Stewart Downing Deal

Chris Wright

16th, July 2011

15 Comments

By Chris Wright

After a couple of weeks of dilly-dallying, Liverpool agreed a fee and completed the signing of Stewart Downing from Aston Villa all in the space of 24 hours yesterday – with the winger passing a medical and agreeing a ‘long term’ contract at Melwood, before officially sealing a deal believed to be worth somewhere just shy of the £20-million mark.

The man himself told the Liverpool website:

“It’s a great feeling and I’m very happy to be here. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve had to wait a few weeks, but I’m really pleased to be here.

“With the tradition, the manager and the players they have here, there was a big temptation to come and once I knew of their interest, there was only one place I wanted to go.”

By way of a replacement, Villa are apparently close to snagging Charles N’Zogbia from Wigan for around half of the Downing windfall, £10 million, which, if you ask us, seems like a bit of pretty shrewd business.

Nice work Eck, nice work.

In further Liverpool news, Brazilian ‘keeper Doni also signed on the dotted line at Melwood last night, though the Reds have decided to be Secret Peters and not disclose any financial details of the deal or the length of the 31-year old’s contract.

The bloody sods.

Posted in Liverpool, Transfers & Rumours

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15 Comments

  1. Andre says:

    Christ almighty; what has the world come to? Stewart “All I can do is cross the ball” Downing is worth $32 million dollars? Really? REALLY?! I remember about 10 years ago when you could buy a Cristiano Ronaldo for less than that. It’s incredible how a few clubs with deep pockets (City, Real, etc.) can completely decimate a transfer market from having decent prospects at fair prices. I know UEFA and their financial fair play rules (bullshit, let’s be honest) are going to try (key word) and fix these issues, but I don’t see it working out for the best interest of the clubs. Say what you will, there are only a handful of players that should be tossed around for prices like that, and I assure you, Downing is not on that list.

  2. Red4Life says:

    Hmm…. You might also remember a time when buying a house dint mean you had to sell your soul. Times change, and markets change too. When it comes to English players its a sellers market.

    Also, even though I agree that 20 Million GBP is quite steep, this is not the fees as disclosed by LFC, its just what the media has said, it could be 15-16 Mil rising to 20 based on performance. And lets be honest, if Downing keeps getting assists and goals and can help the cause of the club, then no one will be complaining.

    If Liverpool really think that Downing is the player they need to get the rest of their investments and team working, then the price they pay will also reflect that.

    Let the lad play before deciding whether he is good/bad/overpriced.

    YNWA

  3. DJ says:

    Henderson, Downing, Carroll & Adam for around £80m

    Liverpool must be off their fucking heads.

  4. syndex says:

    and yet liverpool will still suck next year

  5. steve says:

    @DJ: I tentatively agree with you, but let’s wait to see how the new team plays before making that declaration…

  6. Montesquieu says:

    The price may be ludicrous especially considering how many pies you could buy with such money, but Stewart Downing is a good English player and since every club wants to promote the idea that it has domestic players on their team and the list of good domestic players is small, well, they shell out these ridiculous prices.

    Either way, I blame Spanish cucumbers. That, and Real Madrid’s buying Cristiano Ronaldo for a ridiculous amount of money, twice the amount of money that they paid for Zidane, who had more accolades at the time he was bought.

  7. Dan says:

    I wish people would just stop complaining. Liverpool paid what they had to pay to sign a player they wanted, its the price Aston Villa wanted and Liverpool matched that. After-all the market for English players is crazily over-priced, but so what, not like your paying the fee.

    The club wants delivery, Andy Carroll lives off crosses, so surely a player who can cross a ball is a must? No point signing a player who just runs and runs at defenses when you’ve spent £35m on a target man.

    I love how people judge these players already, saying the club is off there head when half the players we’ve signed haven’t even played yet. Seriously people!

  8. wolfusa says:

    next season: 1.united, 2.city, 3.chelsea, 4.arsenal(last hurrah), 5.scousers.

    this signing makes them a better first team squad (a great first team actually), but an injury or two and you’ll see they’re shorter on the bench than 1-4. if you’re happy with moving up a spot from last year, which is no pittance, good for you, puds.

  9. georgio says:

    the individual quality of liverpools signings can be questioned but as a collective youd be rather glad to have them

  10. Montesquieu says:

    When you compare them to their city rival, they have a good squad. Obviously not good enough to challenge for top honours, but good enough squad to likely at least qualify for Europa.

  11. Gino Annie? says:

    Don’t the english just love themselves………… Not one club outside of england would pay that for any of these boys mentioned above.

    Listen to the rest of the football world. You’re players are not that good. Why bang up their price cause they’ve got an england cap? Its not like they done anything useful for england in any competition.

    This has got to stop. For one I blame some commentators for their over-excitedness when an english player performs a simple back heel into the goal! And thinking that england are gonna win the tournament beforte it begins. OH yes this is our year, definitely our year

  12. Papi says:

    I’m quite sure you could buy Wigan for £20 mil.

  13. Montesquieu says:

    @Gino Annie

    The irony here is, that you’re posting on an English football blog, in English. Talking about the English footballers. You do realise you’re a daft idiot for doing so, don’t you?

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