I have defended Downing quite a lot because i think he seems to be being made the scapegoat for last season, yet people dont seem to wish to praise him for seasons previous when we did well, basically dont praise him for good things, but slate him for bad things. RDM, Hodgson and Clarke all promoted him and i find it hard to believe those promotions would of been forced on them?
Also whatever the rights and wrongs, we got a decent points return under Kiely and Him over Xmas and also if reports are to be believed, it was those two who got us over the line and kept us up so i think he should be shown some respect and praised instead of been blamed for everything thats gone wrong, he deserves some of the flak without a doubt because of the coaching side such as Set pieces, etc, but i think it was Clarke who said the players were driving him mad because they worked on stuff all week long and went it came to games, they just didnt do it, that to me is the players, not the coaches. Also Downing has never signed a player for us as far as i know, he is in charge of coaching whatever the head coach / 'football department' put in front of him.
That said, i also would imagine if as rumoured it is insisted he is Sherwoods Number 2 then he must start to feel uncomfortable, if Sherwood is bringing in his own team then he will be friends with them, trust them, worked with them, etc before and yet there is a bloke who is his assistant by default really which isnt fair on Sherwood, Downing or the players. I could understand the insistence in a way for Downing to be kept on under Pepe Mel as he couldnt speak English, didnt know a lot about the Premier League and with an experiment like that it made sense to have a safe pair of hands, with Sherwood its different, he is bringing 2 or 3 of his people and unless he has requested Downing be his assistant then i cant see the point.
I can understand wanting to keep Downing at the club, i think if all goes t**ts up then its good to have that steady safe pair of hands who can step in, and its worked for other clubs in the past having 'a boot room' so to speak, it would appear Downings strengths and Coaching and players seem to like him, whether he could work jointly with the Academy and First Team on a coaching basis so there is a smooth progression up from them i dont know, or something like that has a purpose, but to be kept on in quite a senior role such as Assistant Manager because the club insist on it must be uncomfortable for all parties.
Again the above is a lot of rumour at the moment but if Downing does leave i hope he is given some respect for stepping up when needed.
