The Premier League ace and English playmaker, Stewart Downing, has joined hometown Club Middlesbrough’s.
Stewart Downing, 30, has left the Hammers and joined the Championship side Middlesbrough for a fee in the region of 5.6m which can cruise upto 7m, if Middlesbrough manages to secure the promotion to the Premier League.
The player visited the Middlesbrough training ground and penned down a 4 year deal with the club. Middlesbrough Manager, Aitor Karanka was delighted with the capture of the English playmaker, “Nobody expected him (Downing) to come here.” said the Manager,”the player wants to be here and is completely committed to the club and the team. “It’s an amazing signing for us. He’s more than just a player.” said Aitor Karanka after securing the deal.
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However the West Ham boss Slaven Billic seemed disappointed, “We were counting on him big time.”
Stewart Downing had a career full of ups and downs. He joined Liverpool in 2009 leaving Aston Villa, however his stinct at Liverpool didn’t go down as was expected and he left the club for West Ham in 2013 for whom he made 37 apparences last season thus becoming a crucial part of the Sam Allardyce team.
The player however was happy to move back to his hometown club and said “There were other options on the table and am happy to be back home.”
He further added, “I always said I wanted to come back to this club, I didn’t put a time limit on it, but now it seemed to be the right time. It would be biggest achievement of my career if I could help us get back into the premier league.”
Middlesbrough narrowly missed out on Premier League last season after they were beaten by the Norwhich City in last season’s play-off final and will look to make it through this time and the signing of Stewart Downing may pay off as well.
