TWTD understands Crystal Palace’s second rebuffed offer for Blues midfielder Flynn Downes was just £1.6 million.

The bid was turned down at the end of last week, after an earlier offer of £1.2 million had been rejected.

Earlier today Blues general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill said the Eagles’ offers for Downes were “nowhere near the club’s valuation” of the academy product and that the bids were turned down straight away by owner Marcus Evans.

Despite Downes having subsequently made a transfer request, it appears his departure for Selhurst Park is far from a fait accompli with Evans not looking to sell despite the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis and Palace currently some distance away from a figure which would tempt him into changing his mind.

The Blues were previously reported to be holding out for £4 million for Downes and an initial fee at around that level or towards £5 million plus substantial top-up clauses, such as appearance milestones, would almost certainly receive more serious consideration. Claims that the Blues are after £8 million would appear unlikely in the current market.

Downes, who we understand has recently taken on a new agent, is contracted to Town until the summer of 2022 with the club having an option for a further season.

TWTD revealed that Palace were keen on the 21-year-old in early July with sporting director Dougie Freedman having been at the Blues' game at Blackpool at the end of February as the Eagles continued an ongoing watching brief having first made contact with Town in January.

West Ham, who Downes supports and who he faced in a friendly at Portman Road last Tuesday, also made their interest known to the Blues in January, while Fulham are among the other clubs to have been keeping tabs on the Brentwood-born schemer. Reports of interest from Arsenal are understood to be wide of the mark.

Photo: Matchday Images

Len_Brennan added 19:43 - Sep 1 Isn't £1.6m what we paid Accrington Stanley for Kayden Jackson, before he had even played in League 1?
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dominiciawful added 19:46 - Sep 1 TractorRoyNo1, Downes scored twice last season (Shrewsbury at home and Tranmere away), and he also got one against Leeds on the final day of 2018/19, so he already has more ITFC goals to his name than Skuse (2). And £1.6million is insulting.
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atty added 20:06 - Sep 1 As Mark said, if we sell our best young that actually get to play regularly for the first team how is that part of Evans plan meant to work, made worse if we sell them for peanuts. So our good players leave and there's not much of a revenue stream either - it would need to be what £6M a year for the academy to break even?, and then just for other clubs. It would better to scrap the academy and reduce the annual loss. Plenty of good young players let go by PL and C'Ship sides.if PL clubs are going to take our best young players what's the point?

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Michael101 added 20:17 - Sep 1 No problem we have a ready made replacement in scuse waiting in the wings,oh deep joy.
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Bluearmy71 added 20:30 - Sep 1 Seriously though that offer is fu*king insulting!
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oldegold added 20:58 - Sep 1 Insulting offer but we are considered a second rate club in steep decline and with a president who is uncomfortable in this sector. You get what you sew and evans will not invest..he is a business man and ITFC is just a peripheral branch of his business empire. He is the wrong person in the job..
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IpswichToon added 21:01 - Sep 1 I'd happily keep Downes and have him play for the next 3 seasons and risk him going on a free than sell him for 1.6m now
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cat added 21:04 - Sep 1 He's put in a transfer request, bridges burnt so be prepared for a departure. Hopefully for a fair fee but won't hold my breath on that one,
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RegencyBlue added 21:33 - Sep 1 All this talk of insulting offers is just hot air! Why would Palace or anyone else want to pay more than the minimum they can get a player for? It is what it is, if they want him badly enough they will come back with offers until they come up with one we accept, end of.
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PortmanTerrorist added 21:52 - Sep 1 Given not a penny will be reinvested in the team, why does anyone care what the fee is. The bigger issue is how do we stay up without him given the squad.....ME has dug us the hole and the salary cap will now bury us....is that being too pessimistic?
4

adeblueboy added 22:50 - Sep 1 Why has my post been taken off??!! I had 2 likes. Is that allowed!! Perhaps what I said was about Downes, someone didn't like. Take the money and run, we would of finished higher if he was good enough. Bishop was thought to have been better. No one has come in for him. We will see him back in the championship in 2021/22 or as soon as January 2021 on loan!!
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Bluearmy_81 added 23:50 - Sep 1 Would definitely settle for survival next season right now...
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KiwiBlue2 added 23:51 - Sep 1 I suspect that the change of agent might have been largely around engineering a move. Perhaps the old agent advised Flynn he should put in another season here to develop a bit further given his age and the frequent fate of many other young players moving too early . One thing this certainly suggests is that he does not see us as being good enough to be confident of promotion this season so why hang around and of course the likely large increase in wages. While being disappointed if he goes it is hard to blame him......

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Skip73 added 01:16 - Sep 2 Palace know what a soft touch Town are. He'll go for £2.5m
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 05:33 - Sep 2 Tell him to stay and play his heart out for a year, and then we'll see. This salary cap has really hit us. Selling any decent players is going to have a negative effect because we can't afford to replace them. And worst of all, the Academy, one of the few things we were still proud of, just becomes a nursery for the vultures in thr PL or Championship.
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tractorboybig added 08:24 - Sep 2 it makes business sense to sell him dont believe the evans bull shyte coming out
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bobble added 09:17 - Sep 2 surely we will be in division 1 in 2 years and higher than place ?
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