In August 2013, on my way back from holiday in Turkey I received a text from a friend which simply read “Hope you’re having a good holiday, we’ve signed Stewart Downing” accompanied by an image of him at the ground. At 4 in the morning in Gatwick airport, a tired and sunburnt Tom Gurlersan shouted the loudest expletive to gain the attention of about 15 passengers, most notably that of a 4 year old child who repeated it much to the bemusement of his mother. I could hardly use “Stewart Downing has signed for West Ham” as an excuse so I just walked to the other end of the luggage belt in shame, though on the plus side I did get my suitcase quite early on!
Downing was awful at Liverpool. In their big summer of spending following the sacking of Rafael Benitez, Kenny Dalglish bought terribly, following £35m flop Andy Carroll with the signings of Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson (now not a flop), Jose Enrique, Sebastian Coates and let’s not forget good old Stewart himself. A Liverpool fan friend of mine once buoyed by the idea of a Downing, Carroll combination told me that he’d drive Downing to the Boleyn ground himself; such was his disappointment in the former Middlesbrough and Aston Villa man’s contributions. Downing lacked confidence and not least quality in his time there and unsurprisingly I felt he’d be exactly the same at West Ham. It all sounded a bit too much like spending £10m on the quite frankly rubbish Matt Jarvis.
For a while, that was exactly how it was looking for Downing at West Ham. Still uninspired, still not quick enough to go past the last man and still not making nearly as many successful crosses as you’d hope from an England winger. I wasn’t exactly in the #SackBigSam corner at this point but I, like many others, was not in any position to publicly back him considering he’d bought 2 of Liverpool’s worst ever signings at what I considered to be vastly inflated prices, for them to go and do exactly the same for us.
It was a disappointing time for us Hammers and one that almost saw Sam pay with his job; only for him to come back with something approaching intelligent tactical nous following what had been recently described as 19th century football by perennial hypocrite Jose Mourinho. The diamond. As beautiful and shiny as any other. With Alex Song at the base, and Stewart Downing at the tip, this new look formation saw us playing free-flowing football with the fluidity that Sam has never produced in his career. Even his high flying Bolton side of the mid-2000’s were successful with football which would be politely described as archaic and yet here it was. Downing had become vital to our system in a totally new position.
Though at times last season Downing looked comfortable on the ball, he was not nearly the player he appears now. In the 11 games between 4thOctober (QPR) and 20th December West Ham took 24 points from an available 33, an incredible statistic for a side who came 13th only winning 11 games last season. Downing didn’t play as a 10 for the whole of this time but it was this role that saw him doing the things we loved seeing him do at Aston Villa; beating players, creating chances and collecting 2 goals and 5 assists from the centre of midfield (with an additional 2 assists from the right). In 20 appearances this term he has 4 times more goals and 3.5 times more assists than in his 29 appearances in2013/2014, plus a 5% increase in passing accuracy and 2 Man of the match awards to boot.
This is not to say that our reformed number 10 is the only reason for our change in form this year but it has to be said that he’s made one hell of a difference. He’s pushed Mauro Zarate out of the squad, and kept the aforementioned Sack Sam brigade quiet for a considerable length of time.
Whether it is a 4-4-2 Diamond or 4-2-3-1 that Allardyce has played this season, Downing has thrived; really meeting his strengths, dictating the play and providing killer passes to the ever rotating target man of the team. Whether it’s a typical early cross for Carroll or ground crosses for Sakho and Valencia, he’s done it brilliantly, terrorising opposition’s defences with ever increasing ease.
Alongside Alex Song he has been a vital cog and there is no doubt to the importance of keeping fit and in the squad for the remainder of this season. This time last year we were looking for a possible replacement for downing, but maybe now he could be considered in our top 3 most important players.
I’ve written him off before but now love the player who caused me to upset travellers due to my angry cursing on announcement of his arrival. I think these days I’d be more likely to do the same if he was to get injured or leave. Quite the turnaround, the revelation that is 2014/15 Stewart Downing.
