Stewart Downing - West Hahahaham player

[Rich]

Definitely thinks he's the victim.

[Pablo]

He has no chance of improving until he accepts how rubbish he's been. Putting in a few aimless crosses does not equate to "making a bit of an impact".

I'm hoping someone like Fat Sam makes a move for him in Jan.

[Fan65]

It could also mean Rodgers has forgotten about him (I keep doing that). Or it could be that he isn't fit enough to make a judgement on yet.

His hands are tied with Joe Cole, His wages are reportedly very high so who'd buy him. He has no form to talk of and his age is against him carreer wise.

To be fair to Joe it's not his fault we pay him so much. He tried hard in France last year but it hasn't just worked out here.

Maybe a loan deal In January with us paying a hefty part of his wages.

QPR? Swansea?, Notlob?

[peekay]

Deluded Downing

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-31962188/

Translation: Dont even dream of trying to sell me off in a cut price deal. I will need my full salary paid.

I am surprised he had the stomach for such an interview. Most likely he drove to the Echo office at full speed, parked in the lot, then called Enrique who then conveyed the message to the reporter.

[baitman]

Translation: Dont even dream of trying to sell me off in a cut price deal. I will need my full salary paid.

that'd be about right.

what really boils my piss about downing is that he isnt a signing with no talent. i cannot believe i have just typed that, but its not easy to hit the right keys while wearing this straight jacket...

a **** player would be shipped out sharpish, like some of Woy's signings. maybe thats why brendan wanted to give him a chance to prove himself. also, the manager couldnt be sure that the young lads would be ready to step up as they have.

downing is a decent player, he just doesnt seem to give a **** and puts no effort into the team that pay his wages. he thinks hes made it now he is getting his fat cheque. he just cant be arsed.

best thing for all would be he gets some game time in the last 10 minutes of any game that we have already won, just so he can put himself in the shop window ready for the transfer window.

[Marina]

downing is a decent player, he just doesnt seem to give a **** and puts no effort into the team that pay his wages. he thinks hes made it now he is getting his fat cheque. he just cant be arsed.

Seems to be the case. Downing has shown glimpses of skill and technique... enough to suggest he knows how to play football.

Although tbf even if he was putting in a genuine shift every time he trained, I still don't think he would be selected. Now that we apparently have decent wingers, Downing is a bit superfluous.

[Lee]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9591631/Liverpool-v-Stoke-City-winger-Stuart-Downing-hurt-but-vows-to-fight-for-his-Anfield-future.html

Liverpool v Stoke City: winger Stuart Downing hurt but vows to fight for his Anfield future
Liverpool winger Stewart Downing is stung by manager Brendan Rodgers' criticism but insists he will not walk away even if being out of favour jeopardises his England prospects.

The words from Brendan Rodgers twisted into Stewart Downing like a knife. The Liverpool manager sugar-coated his criticism by talking about the winger’s “talent”, but it was damning with the faintest of praise: he doubted whether Downing had the stomach to “fight” for the “cause” and, last week, frustrated by the season’s results, Rodgers went public with those reservations.

Downing’s future at Liverpool is on the line and, although he reveals that Rodgers had said as much to him in private, he has been wounded by the public criticism from the manager and his £20 million move from Aston Villa in the summer of 2011 has again become the central focus of the wastefulness of the previous regime.

“I was surprised that it came out,” the 28 year-old admits, becoming the first senior player at Liverpool to question Rodgers’s confrontational comments - which included accusing the team of being “lazy” after Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League defeat at home to Udinese.

“I’ve obviously spoken to him [Rodgers] on numerous occasions about different things when I wasn’t in the team, private things, but the only thing I can do is keep playing well.

You can sit in the (manager’s) office for hours and talk about my game, but the only way I can prove it is out on the field and, when I’m given that chance, I have to take it.”

Downing, Luis Enrique, another to feel Rodgers’ unhappiness, Jordan Henderson - and, with £35 million Andy Carroll on loan and Charlie Adam, who faces Liverpool on Sunday for his new club, Stoke City, gone, there does appear to be either deliberately or unwittingly a purging of the players acquired so expensively by former manager Kenny Dalglish and the then director of football, Damien Comolli.

“Obviously, my name was mentioned so that was a fact,” Downing says. “I’m disappointed. But if that’s how the manager sees it then there’s nothing I can do about it.

"I have to just keep working hard and do what he tells me to do. I would have preferred it if it was private, but that’s just the way it is.” Except now it’s all very public.

Downing admits he was “upset” by Rodgers questioning whether he had the right “work ethic”. “I was upset but you’d have to ask the manager what he meant by it,” he says.

“I try my best, I’m not one who’s going to run around tackling people, that's not my game, but I always try, I give my best and I’m always available to play, so you really have to ask the manager what he meant.”

These are frustrating times for Liverpool. Small margins; simple errors are becoming increasingly costly.

Liverpool are, at times, playing good football, are close to clicking, but still are guilty of simple mistakes undermining their campaign. The loss to Udinese was a third successive home defeat.

Inevitably, and because it has happened before, with England and with his previous clubs, Downing has become the discussion point of much of that discontent. But he is determined not to follow Adam and Carroll in leaving Liverpool and will resist any efforts - as the manager has suggested - that he might be sold in the January window.

“I’ve got three years left on my contract and I’m going nowhere,” Downing said emphatically. “I will fight and I am here to see my contract out and I’d love to stay longer. I’ve worked hard to get here, so I don’t want to leave in a rush.”

Downing certainly won’t be demanding a loan move either - even if not being in the first-team at Liverpool will jeopardise his chances of being selected for England and adding to his 34 caps, something that finally convinced Carroll he should go. “Andy’s obviously got his own issues and I’m not sure what the manager said to him,” Downing said.

“But Andy’s young and obviously he wants to play. He’s in the England squad, so I can understand his decision.”

In truth, for now, England is an afterthought for Downing, who has been omitted from Roy Hodgson’s squad.

“I think so,” he admits. “Because no one’s going to pick me if I am sat on the sidelines. That’s obvious. But the thing for me is that if I have a good season here and do well then hopefully Roy will put me back in.”

A good season is some way off. The emergence of Raheem Sterling and the arrivals of Nuri Sahin and Fabio Borini, have meant Downing hasn’t started a league match since the opening-day 3-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion and, recently, has failed to make the bench, while Rodgers has spoken about maybe even re-inventing him as a left-back.

Downing is smarting - and smarting at claims that he fails to take responsibility in matches.

“Bravery is a lot of things,” he says. “It’s not just tackling, that’s not my game. But bravery is also taking the ball when you are losing the game and trying to create things. That’s what I try and do.”

There’s also the strange contradiction in watching young tyros such as Sterling and Oussama Assaidi take your place in the team - and, also, be one of the senior players who is naturally expected to help their development.

“When I was younger I had a lot of older pros around me, good pros also [at Middlesbrough],” Downing said. “I have to help the younger ones along the way and obviously keep their feet on the ground, but they are good lads and they listen and learn and you can see that in their performances. They taken everything on board and that’s great for the club.

“Obviously, it saves money, but not only that, they are good players and they deserve to be here. You can see they have great talent and I’m sure that the manager will nurture them along the way and put them in, put them out.

You can see there are a few players already who have played more games than expected.” There are also, like Downing, those who have played fewer.

[Shaggy]

Luis Enrique

If only

[Zapater]

His comments to the media are so ****ing infuriating. Can't stand him, personally and professionally.

[Roboklopp]

Aye and I hate his stupid gormless face.

[destinydude]

“Bravery is a lot of things,” he says. “It’s not just tackling, that’s not my game. But bravery is also taking the ball when you are losing the game and trying to create things. That’s what I try and do.”

Say what?

[Reece]

He really needs to shut up now. He's making things worse for himself.

[dww]

Obviously it's not very helpful but it seems to me pretty much the natural reaction to your manager slating you in the press.

[yamiedo]

An absolute cunt of a player.

[Exiled_red]

Obviously it's not very helpful but it seems to me pretty much the natural reaction to your manager slating you in the press.

He can't really do anything else, other than respond with comments like this (and hopefully improve his performances on the pitch), if he says nothing people would accuse him of not giving a ****.