Crystal Palace are again being linked with Blues midfielder Flynn Downes with Town said to targeting a fee of around £4 million for the 21-year-old.

TWTD revealed the Eagles’ interest in Downes earlier this month, now The Athletic lists the academy product on a list of young players Palace are eyeing as they look to bring down the average age of their squad ahead of 2020/21.

They claim the Blues are holding out for a fee of around £4 million for England U20 international Downes, who is contracted until the summer of 2022 with the club having an option for a further season.

As TWTD previously reported, Palace sporting director Dougie Freedman was at Town’s game at Blackpool at the end of February as the Selhurst Park club continued an ongoing watching brief. We understand they made Town an offer in January which was rebuffed.

West Ham have also made their interest known to the Blues, while Fulham are among the other clubs to have been keeping tabs on the Brentwood-born schemer, who TWTD readers voted their 2019/20 Town Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year.

Speaking to TWTD just over a week ago, general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill said Downes is in no hurry to leave Portman Road.

“Flynn’s really happy here, he’s itching to get back into training and games, as all the players are really,” he said.

“The way it finished and the way we finished as a club is not what they want going forward so they want to go and make amends and they want to put it right.

“He’s as committed to the football club as he’s always been all the way through his journey.”

Downes and the rest of his team-mates are set to return to Playford Road for training under strict safety guidelines on Tuesday.

Photo: TWTD

itfchorry added 14:56 - Jul 19 4 Million plus Johnny Williams
0

Carberry added 17:00 - Jul 19 It's not what he's worth to us it's what he's worth to whoever bids for him along with what Evans is willing to take. So £4m is pretty unlikely. What would Evans take, £2m?
1

Linkboy13 added 19:09 - Jul 19 Can't see how people can rate Downes as a championship player yet. He was competent in league 1 but don't think he was outstanding if anything KVY looked like a better prospect so i think 4million is a bit ambitious.
0

TractorRoyNo1 added 20:02 - Jul 19 He plays in league 1, biting a Prem team wants him they think he is better than that so the price should be relevant to that, he us £4m to Sunderland but £8m to West Ham.
0

ChrisR added 20:13 - Jul 19 Don't worry , for midfield we get to keep the almost useless Nolan and the injury prone trio of Huws, Dozell and Bishop . Might just about get by in L 2 where we are heading under serial loser Lambert !
3

MurcianITCC added 21:38 - Jul 19 Let's not forget we are a league one team...4 mil is probably about right given that
0

KiwiBlue2 added 04:42 - Jul 20 We cannot afford to continue being a charity shop and as Roy Keane put it (in about the only thing I agreed with him on) 'being too nice' ........ While I dont think that we should sell Downes or any other of our promising players if we end up having to then the price must be the maximum obtainable. If 4m is being quoted we need to be talking 8m with a view to squeezing a couple of million more and inserting a healthy sell-on clause and a bit more for number of games played. If they dont like it then they would have to spend a lot more getting someone with PL experience......

3

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls