Stewart Downing To Hand In Transfer Request To Middlesbrough

With all the speculation surrounding the future of the Boro winger, could he finally be leaving the club and making his expected move to North London...

Reports have just broken from the Riverside, where it seems that Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing will hand in a transfer request to manager Gareth Southgate tomorrow.

Sky Sports sources have suggested that the winger will hand in an official written request after much speculation about his future at the club.

The 24-year-old midfielder has been a repeated transfer target for Tottenham Hotspur over the last three years and it now looks as though he may finally be making the move to North London.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has made it clear that he would like to bring in at least three or four players to club after he discovered the lack of depth the club had, and Downing looks set to be one of those players to be brought into White Hart Lane.

Only yesterday reports suggested that Downing was the subject of a £12 million bid from Spurs, and now it looks as though his much speculated move to Spurs will finally happen after three years of speculation.

The reasons for Downing's decision to hand in a transfer request are unclear, but it seems certain that the England international will not be a Boro player for much longer, and he looks set to leave the Riverside before the end of the transfer window.

If Wayne Bridge is worth 12 million, I'm assuming City will launch a 59 million pound bid for Downing before the day is out.


Coops, would Boro accept such a bid?

He's going to hand in a transfer request to move to a club on the same amount of points as his current club.

Im not convinced by this really..Spurs have tried to buy him upwards of 67 times..43 of those were whilst they were good. Why wait til this time when they're shit?

Unless he is aware of interest from another club then I dont see why he's handing in a transfer request..unless he's just completely disillusioned with the club. Gibbo, Lamb and GaSo have been saying for about 2 weeks that they wont be selling him too, so they might just reject his request..

Kimbo wrote:He's going to hand in a transfer request to move to a club on the same amount of points as his current club.

I know! I hope in the end he moves Manchester City. Moving to us is pointless for all parties...

They are so many players who are good enough (or atleast have potential to be) to become good/very good left wingers throughout Europe and SA(though I am not that well informed about that market) but Spurs like a broken record keeps putting in bids in for Downing.

Downing has achieved a consistent if unspectacular level of performance for a number of seasons. Any cheaper/potentially better import might flop. With Downing, you know exactly what you are and are not getting.


If I were Boro, I'd sell, but make sure I got top dollar. Boro clearly have a good academy and are in lower mid table safety so they could make money just sitting there and churning out moderately decent talent. The chairman's not rich enough to take Boro anywhere further than they are already.

They have Adam Johnson so take the cash.

We should be able to achieve top 10 with the money he's spent I think..

I wouldnt sell Downing for anything less than £15m..and I would push for £20m.

President Darkie wrote:Downing has achieved a consistent if unspectacular level of performance for a number of seasons. Any cheaper/potentially better import might flop. With Downing, you know exactly what you are and are not getting.


If I were Boro, I'd sell, but make sure I got top dollar. Boro clearly have a good academy and are in lower mid table safety so they could make money just sitting there and churning out moderately decent talent. The chairman's not rich enough to take Boro anywhere further than they are already.

There is where the scouting part comes in and is probably part of the managerial abilities to find good players or judge them, everyone has flops but what if Downing turns out to be a flop ? He is a decent/good prem player for Boro but what if he cant hack it at Spurs.
It isnt that the failure rate of foreign players are very high these days.

DS wrote:

President Darkie wrote:Downing has achieved a consistent if unspectacular level of performance for a number of seasons. Any cheaper/potentially better import might flop. With Downing, you know exactly what you are and are not getting.


If I were Boro, I'd sell, but make sure I got top dollar. Boro clearly have a good academy and are in lower mid table safety so they could make money just sitting there and churning out moderately decent talent. The chairman's not rich enough to take Boro anywhere further than they are already.

There is where the scouting part comes in and is probably part of the managerial abilities to find good players or judge them, everyone has flops but what if Downing turns out to be a flop ?

Then Spurs waste their money. The point is Downing plays in this league, so you can scout how he'll do in this league. You cannot do the same for a player elsewhere, no matter how good your scouts.

He is a decent/good prem player for Boro but what if he cant hack it at Spurs.
It isnt that the failure rate of foreign players are very high these days.

Dunno, Arsenal drive it up all the time with their thousands of young players who end up back where they should have been all along.

Maybe Downing feels that a move to the championship might improve his game?

Not really sure why else he'd want to join spurs.

There's a Celtic fan popped up on a Boro forum saying there's rumours going around in Glasgow that we're trying to sign McGeady if Downing goes.

DS wrote:

President Darkie wrote:Downing has achieved a consistent if unspectacular level of performance for a number of seasons. Any cheaper/potentially better import might flop. With Downing, you know exactly what you are and are not getting.


If I were Boro, I'd sell, but make sure I got top dollar. Boro clearly have a good academy and are in lower mid table safety so they could make money just sitting there and churning out moderately decent talent. The chairman's not rich enough to take Boro anywhere further than they are already.

There is where the scouting part comes in and is probably part of the managerial abilities to find good players or judge them, everyone has flops but what if Downing turns out to be a flop ? He is a decent/good prem player for Boro but what if he cant hack it at Spurs.
It isnt that the failure rate of foreign players are very high these days.

if you're going to make a reactionary signing like this it makes sense to buy Premiership proven, and English.

If you look at United over the past few years they've only really signed 3 outfield first team players, everyone else has pretty much been signed while the player they were to replace was still at the club, this is a luxury that not many clubs can afford, certainly not to United's level. These 3 players were Ferdinand, Ronaldo and Carrick who in one way or another were signed to replace Stam, Beckham and Keane, of these players the English ones did the best and settled quickest.

The same goes for Arsenal, if you look at their first team pretty much all of their players were signed proactively. Liverpool and Spurs have a different way of turning over players. The handover is much less fluid and in these cases you're better off with the devil you know.

Ferdinand's scored more than 42 goals in a season?

Ronaldo scored 42 goals in his 5th season. When he first signed for United he was pretty much a laughing stock. Same goes for Drogba at Chelsea.

Ronaldo did 1283 stepovers in his first season. Are you saying Ferdinand did more when he first signed for ManYoo?

borocooper wrote:There's a Celtic fan popped up on a Boro forum saying there's rumours going around in Glasgow that we're trying to sign McGeady if Downing goes.

He'd be a quality signing.

Always thought that if he left it would be to Aston Villa or maybe even to Liverpool so for you to get him would be a massive coup.

How much do you expect Downing to leave for? £15m?

Tweedle wrote:

borocooper wrote:There's a Celtic fan popped up on a Boro forum saying there's rumours going around in Glasgow that we're trying to sign McGeady if Downing goes.

He'd be a quality signing.

Always thought that if he left it would be to Aston Villa or maybe even to Liverpool so for you to get him would be a massive coup.

How much do you expect Downing to leave for? £15m?

If we let him go for anything under £12m I'd be annoyed..i'd be happy with £15m but I think we could get more at the moment. Also annoyed that he's waited until now to ask for the transfer so the bigger the price tag the more pressure he's under

President Darkie wrote:Ronaldo did 1283 stepovers in his first season. Are you saying Ferdinand did more when he first signed for ManYoo?

No, I am saying that of the hundreds of millions of pounds that United have spent on outfield players in the last few years, only Ferdinand, Carrick and Ronaldo were signed as direct replacements, everyone else was signed to complement a settled squad. Out of those 3 players it's the 2 English players, signed from within the Premier League who were an immediate success. Ronaldo went on to become a success, but after 3/4 seasons.

Glenn Hysén wrote:

President Darkie wrote:Ronaldo did 1283 stepovers in his first season. Are you saying Ferdinand did more when he first signed for ManYoo?

No, I am saying that of the hundreds of millions of pounds that United have spent on outfield players in the last few years, only Ferdinand, Carrick and Ronaldo were signed as direct replacements, everyone else was signed to complement a settled squad. Out of those 3 players it's the 3 English players, signed from within the Premier League who were an immediate success. Ronaldo went on to become a success, but after 3/4 seasons.

Ronaldo's English?

Sorry Glenn, I actually got you the first time round...

borocooper wrote:

Tweedle wrote:

borocooper wrote:There's a Celtic fan popped up on a Boro forum saying there's rumours going around in Glasgow that we're trying to sign McGeady if Downing goes.

He'd be a quality signing.

Always thought that if he left it would be to Aston Villa or maybe even to Liverpool so for you to get him would be a massive coup.

How much do you expect Downing to leave for? £15m?

If we let him go for anything under £12m I'd be annoyed..i'd be happy with £15m but I think we could get more at the moment. Also annoyed that he's waited until now to ask for the transfer so the bigger the price tag the more pressure he's under

Use the money to buy some South Africans. Apparently its the only country (with half(ish) decent(ish) footballers)in a worse financial state than ourselves at the moment

Glenn Hysén wrote:

DS wrote:

President Darkie wrote:Downing has achieved a consistent if unspectacular level of performance for a number of seasons. Any cheaper/potentially better import might flop. With Downing, you know exactly what you are and are not getting.


If I were Boro, I'd sell, but make sure I got top dollar. Boro clearly have a good academy and are in lower mid table safety so they could make money just sitting there and churning out moderately decent talent. The chairman's not rich enough to take Boro anywhere further than they are already.

There is where the scouting part comes in and is probably part of the managerial abilities to find good players or judge them, everyone has flops but what if Downing turns out to be a flop ? He is a decent/good prem player for Boro but what if he cant hack it at Spurs.
It isnt that the failure rate of foreign players are very high these days.

if you're going to make a reactionary signing like this it makes sense to buy Premiership proven, and English.

If you look at United over the past few years they've only really signed 3 outfield first team players, everyone else has pretty much been signed while the player they were to replace was still at the club, this is a luxury that not many clubs can afford, certainly not to United's level. These 3 players were Ferdinand, Ronaldo and Carrick who in one way or another were signed to replace Stam, Beckham and Keane, of these players the English ones did the best and settled quickest.

The same goes for Arsenal, if you look at their first team pretty much all of their players were signed proactively. Liverpool and Spurs have a different way of turning over players. The handover is much less fluid and in these cases you're better off with the devil you know.

I understand Glenn what you are saying but if giving examples Riera settled better then Pennant, Torres better then Keane, Eduardo better then Jeffers, it could not work and its usually an expensive ploy.

you've misunderstood my point completely.

Riera, Pennant, Keane, Eduardo and Jeffers weren't signed as first choice reactive replacements in the same way.

Riera has worked out so far, but he could just as easily have flopped and at the time, given the choice I think a lot of Liverpool fans would have preferred Downing, perhaps even Rafa.

So you think that it is a good deal, 15m for Downing ?

for Spurs, yes.

Glenn Hysén wrote:you've misunderstood my point completely.

Riera, Pennant, Keane, Eduardo and Jeffers weren't signed as first choice reactive replacements in the same way.

Riera has worked out so far, but he could just as easily have flopped and at the time, given the choice I think a lot of Liverpool fans would have preferred Downing, perhaps even Rafa.

Thank f@ck we got Riera instead.

We shouldn't be in for Downing, we need a right mid not a left mid.

Part exhange with Babel though and you've got yourself a deal

We've got better players than Babel already.