Saints Unwilling to Sell Downes to Relegation Rival Monday, 3rd Feb 2025 11:04 Southampton appear unwilling to allow former Blues midfielder Flynn Downes to join one of their relegation rivals before this evening’s 11pm deadline.
Downes, 26, joined the Saints from West Ham for an initial £15 million in the summer following a successful loan last season, but is now out of favour, with new manager Ivan Juric hinting at a fall out between the pair after Saturday’s game between the teams.
Town were also very interested during the close season but Downes opted to rejoin the Saints given his successful loan and relationship with then-boss Russell Martin, who departed in December.
Despite the apparent friction, we understand the Hampshire club are, as it stands, unwilling to sell to a rival in the Premier League relegation battle.
Whether a bid significantly in excess of the £15 million fee the Saints paid in the summer would change their minds - or would be offered before tonight’s deadline - remains to be seen.
Following Saturday’s 2-1 win at Portman Road, Southampton stayed bottom but are now seven points behind Town in 19th and 10 from safety.
Brentwood-born Downes started his career with the Blues, coming through the academy and making 99 appearances for the club before being sold to Swansea City during Paul Cook’s 2021 Demolition Man summer for an initial £1.5 million.
The former England U19 and U20 international moved on to West Ham, the club he supported as a boy, the following year for £9 million but was unable to establish himself in the East Londoners’ side and was loaned to Southampton for 2023/24, helping them to promotion back to the top flight via the play-offs and subsequently making the move permanent.
TWTD
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Woolfenthen added 11:10 - Feb 3
Bloke throws his toys out of the pram when things don't go his way, why would we want him here again? |  | |
IronBlue29 added 11:12 - Feb 3
To be honest, if we can get Cajuste for £12m (although not sure this is possible if we go down) I'd jump at the chance to invest in him instead of Downes. |  | |
Gforce added 11:12 - Feb 3
Well I would imagine it's us interested and not Leicester. Not so sure he's the answer though,would he really improve us enough to keep us up,I doubt it. |  | |
Jack27 added 11:17 - Feb 3
I rate Downes very highly. Ran the show against us at PR last season. |  | |
Tractorboy58 added 11:20 - Feb 3
I do think we need some more energy in the midfield , maybe play 3 instead of 2 - .. 3 - 5 - 2 |  | |
Town1Inter0 added 11:21 - Feb 3
Can we get another central midfielder then? |  | |
JonDouglas4Ballondor added 11:25 - Feb 3
@Woolfenthen - was during an awful period of the club when we were coached by Lambert and rotting in League One. He is a very talented footballer, how can you blame him for wanting to play at a higher level? I would welcome him back especially with Morsy getting on and Phillips/Cajuste being on loan |  | |
Alphawhiskey added 11:27 - Feb 3
Can we just do a straight swap with Muric? |  | |
ArnieM added 11:41 - Feb 3
No thanks. This player has made his views on staying at Town and re joining us in the summer. He can sling his hook and he’s not good enough anyway. I’ve watched loads of Saints games, he’s gone backwards. |  | |
itfc2024 added 11:57 - Feb 3
get him in he's better than morsy and could just be the difference in us staying up |  | |
Karlosfandangal added 11:58 - Feb 3
With Casjute (possible) and Phillips leaving at the end of the season if we can get someone like Downes then a good move. However he is always going to be the villain at Portman Road and the way the toys came out of the pram when things were not going his way……..would he be a good fit for the team He has most probably grown up a lot move than when last at Town but don’t think he is worth £15+. Million Would prefer Casjute |  | |
RegencyBlue added 12:03 - Feb 3
We definitely need better in central midfield but not sure Downes is the answer at that price! Unless he’s changed he’s also a red card waiting to happen every time he plays. |  | |
atty added 12:08 - Feb 3
He’s a tidy player who moves the ball around well, and is a bit feisty. Phillips just not happening, Morsey slowing down, Taylor not pulling up any trees. Cajuste and Downes. I can see that working. Not going to happen though. All part of the deadline day circus. |  | |
Billericay12 added 12:13 - Feb 3
Mediocre. Not good enough at West Ham, not shining for the Saints so why would we want him ? And certainly not for 15 Million. Dodgy temperament too. At least Morsy can control himself when on a yellow and retains the ball better. But it’s a challenge to improve your squad in the January transfer window when you are 2nd bottom. |  | |
d77sgw added 12:14 - Feb 3
Would make sense for next season. We need to have a Morsy-succession plan, and FD could be that player. Needs to have grown-up a bit since he was here last, but that was a few years ago. |  | |
JPR77 added 12:26 - Feb 3
A tried and trusted central Midfielder is a must for me, someone to pull the strings in the middle, tidy up and set up plays. |  | |
Len_Brennan added 12:28 - Feb 3
I don't know the specific circumstances of any of the 'hot button' incidents with Downes, but then again, neither do 99.9% of the posters on here. But there are certain things we do know. He played very well for us in his time here & became a very good Championship level combative midfielder. He was wanted by Crystal Palace, who were a PL club with a great reputation for bringing in young players with potential & developing them into excellent PL players; they made 2 or 3 offers for him, which were turned down, at which point he handed in a transfer request. This is not exceptional behaviour in the circumstances, although disappointing for us. After that things went downhill, he was dropped, his aggressiveness in play became more anger, he got sent off, he got injured, he got dropped. Yes, he should have handled all that better & been more professional, but he was young, we weren't good & he saw his chance of playing in the PL being denied, despite offers of ... £2m+ I think (open to being corrected on that). When Demolition Man came in, he was told he had no future here & was sold to Swansea for £1.5m, where he quickly showed his quality & earned a big money move to West Ham. Haven't you ever wondered what might have happened (Woolfenden like) had he still been in the squad when McKenna came in? Of course Morsy came in & has been great for us, for I suspect McKenna would have done wonders with him. As for the Summer 'rejection', we don't know the details, but he had been with Southampton last season, he had had discussions with Martin about joining permanently (whether there were actual promises who knows), and his partner is from that part of the world. We might see it as a 2 finger rejection, but it could well be that there were genuine, decent reasons behind him agreeing to sign for them over us - I inderstand that we offered more money, so greed doesn't appear to be the reason. So where are we now? Do we need a central midfielder, a younger, dynamic, aggressive ball winner type, to add to our squad? Absolutely I would say. Does Downes fit the description of what we need? Absolutely I would say again. His performance against us last season was really impressive & I do think he is capable of performing at PL level. We are badly missing that presence in midfielder, that fights to win, & retain the ball, and then push forward with purpose. I'd take him. |  | |
Rimsy added 12:30 - Feb 3
Think he'd be a great fit if he came back. Can't read too much into his behaviour when he was younger, must have been so frustrated working under those clown managers at the time. Get him working with McK. |  | |
Lightningboy added 12:47 - Feb 3
I think we need to start looking at next season AND the season after - Morsy / Luongo will be fine in the Championship next season but we need to start looking at bringing in a younger pair in the middle. I'm guessing there'll be / needs to be a bit of a clearout over the summer..Phillips can go back & I doubt we'll keep Cajuste..plus we've got far too many players to fill those 3 places behind the striker...I would love to see Cam Humphreys fill one of those positions next season anyhow. |  | |
Saxonblue74 added 13:22 - Feb 3
Burnt his bridges as far as I'm concerned. Would appear he still has a bad attitude as would likely have been playing against us Saturday if not. |  | |
fifeblue added 13:23 - Feb 3
It very rarely works out for any player at any club they return to. Only two worked for Ipswich Town in its history: Ray Crawford and John Wark. And Downes is nowhere near the class of either of those two. The current urgent problem is obviously the goalkeeper which the club has done something about today. There are other, flexible players in the squad who could do a job in midfield better than Downes. |  | |
Leejames99 added 13:25 - Feb 3
Downes would be a great addition, matured, experienced, gritty but nice see him come full circle, good replacement for Morsy. |  | |
billlm added 13:26 - Feb 3
LB Morsy and loungo won't be up to it, father time has caught Morsy especially, Billericay12, sometimes a player needs an arm around them and a home, here's home and McKenna supports not balls out players like Martin when it goes wrong, |  | |
WaltonBlueNaze added 13:37 - Feb 3
I’d absolutely have Downes back, he can replace Morsy next season, has more energy and under KM’s coaching he can develop further. I wouldn’t try to buy Cajuste, he can’t play 90 minutes and next year we will have even more games. The championship is brutal and I’m not sure he will cope! |  | |
PortmanTerrorist added 13:40 - Feb 3
Flynn splits the crowd it seems. In the right system, he could go on to be something special, but there have clearly been issues with temperament/attitude. What we do not know is how justified that might be as there must be fallout when a new manager changes the whole way a team plays and most of the team....the new Manager might have needed someone to make an example of. Phillips was supposed to replace Morsy but that never happened, but even in the Championship, we will need a Morsy replacement (Cajuste is not the like-for-like) and Flynn would smash that. Would feel super-confident of another promotion with him and Sam marshalling our midfield between them......more importantly he would bolster us in our efforts to stay up and there is no chance he is doing that for Saints ! |  | |
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