Aston Villa should retain http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Stewart-Downing-c34221 and build their team around him – Part 2
Building on what was elaborated in the first part of this featured series about Stewart Downing’s role for Aston Villa and his possible move away from Villa Park in the summer transfer window of 2011. It seems that Liverpool are
willing to meet Aston Villa’s asking price for the winger which seems to be in the region of 21-22 million pounds. However this begs the question that what are Aston Villa playing at?
In reality, Villa are a respectable club and they were woeful in the 2010-2011 Premier League season but that does not mean that they cannot improve on their 9th place finish. It does not mean that they should part ways
with their star players just because they failed to reach the Europa League.
In comparison to Liverpool, Aston Villa weren’t that far behind in the 2010-2011 Premier League season. The Reds finished sixth in the end whereas Villa finished 9th. Both the clubs failed to qualify for the Europa
League as Tottenham finished fifth and secured their place in Europe’s secondary competition by doing so. Yes, Aston Villa are not as big a club as Liverpool and neither does their spending power match that of the Reds but didn’t Liverpool finish seventh just
one season ago?
Merseyside’s famous football club is in a transitional period at the moment thus it will be better for both Downing and Aston Villa to maintain their partnership for now. This isn’t the first time that Liverpool have tried to sign
a Aston Villa star. A couple of years back when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gareth-Barry-c14423 but were denied time and again by the Villains. In the end Barry was sold to City for an inflated price tag, a tag that
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 couldn’t match.
Additionally, Downing fits perfectly into the Aston Villa side at the moment. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Houllier, Downing was played
as an inverted winger on the right which marginalized his effectiveness to a certain extent but now he has the change to play on the left due to Ashley Young’s departure. Aston Villa’s first team squad could look like this in the up-coming season;
New goalkeeper
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luke-Young-c22938 – Dunne – Cuellar – Walker
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marc-Albrighton-c23470 – Makoun – Petrov – Stewart Downing
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gabriel-Agbonlahor-c14288
After selling http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ben-Foster-c7445 from his former club, Birmingham City to fill that void. In midfield, Downing can provide service to the front
two from the left hand side whilst Marc Albrighton can do his http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Job-c18684 down the right hand side. Up front in Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor, Aston Villa have two talented strikers. Agbonlahor has pace and trickery whilst Bent has a golden finishing touch, something
that can work well for Villa over the course of the coming season.
McLeish and co. must convince Downing to stay because they need to build their team around him. Downing is out to prove himself in time to make it to England’s EURO 2012 squad thus the next season will truly be a make or break
on for him as well as his club side.
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