Stewart Downing.

By Borofan - Football Network
January 6 2009

While the Middlesbrough board looked upon this bid as little more than a joke it has been confirmed that on the 5th Downing's official transfer request had been considered before being rejected - and Keith Lamb, Boro's Chief Executive revealed that Tottenham had made an improved offer before the denial of Downings request to leave the club.

Downing's father, Stewart Sr. revealed that Downing had been frustrated since the summer due to an apparent lack of 'significant investment' from the club, and that Stewart was further frustrated by Boro's lack of improvement in the Premier League. Downing's exit has been speculated for the past 18months or so and it seems Tottenham Hotspur have long been the club linked to him, with speculation surrounding Liverpool in the past.

Perhaps now the time has come to offload Downing, with Johnson waiting in the wings - but only if a deal that is right for the club is made. If the Boro were to get £10m and Gareth Bale as part of a transfer deal I for one would be very satisfied, but as Spurs are highly hypocritical (you only need to look at the Berbatov transfer saga), it would be likely that Spurs have a highly inflated value upon the young Welsh Left back. As many people are saying if Spurs can buy Bentley for £18m Downing is surely worth at least that regardless of the changing economic times, although if we are realistic Boro should not even be considering offers until they are over the £12m mark, and hopefully towards £15m. If a player is set on leaving there is no point of keeping him at the club and perhaps the time is right for Downing to go - for the right price.

Latest News as Downing Hands in a Transfer Request

Discussion started by Down by the Riverside (IP Logged), 06/01/2009 01:06

Down by the Riverside
06/01/2009 01:06

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Spirit of Steaua
06/01/2009 15:09

I know people are drawing parallels with Gareth Barry being told he was staying at Aston Villa - but I think our past form says we'll let him go. Spurs is a stange team to go to though. Hopefully someone else will come in and push up the price.

If he does go to Spurs I think Bale in part-ex is a good idea. I think we need a reliable attacking left back with a bit of pace. All Barrow seemed to need to do on Saturday was to lob the ball over Poggi's head and try to do him for pace.

I saw someone else mention Huddlestone too who I think would suit us - particularly if O'Neill's going. I hope we can hold onto Mido until the end of the season then let him go. He seems to be out injured a fair bit but gives us a target man and something different.

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