Stewart Downing has completed his move to West Ham United this morning.
The player had agreed terms yesterday after the clubs settled on a fee of £6M. Today was the day he was paraded at his new stadium.
Despite being an active member of Liverpool's pre-season up until the weekend, Downing was originally told in January that he could move on, although he fought for his place and put in some semi-decent performances in the second half of the season.
But as one of the highest wage earners at the club and with a rapidly dwindling sell on value the reds decided it was in both parties interest for the player to move on.
TRANSFER COMPLETED: Stewart Downing completes move to West Ham United. #LFC pic.twitter.com/oBB3ba4zcF
— Anfield Online (@anfieldonline) 13 August 2013
Stewart Downing said:
"I'm very excited. It's a great opportunity for me being here, it's a great club and I'm really excited to get going.
"I've played a decent few games for Liverpool in pre-season, so there will be no problems on that front."
Liverpool have spent around £22M on new players so far this summer, but recouped around £27M in transfer fees, and including the loan agreement for Pepe Reina to Napoli have cut the wage bill substantially as the reds look to improve the clubs accounts.
Liverpool fans will be wondering if there will be more fresh faces appearing in the remaining weeks of the transfer window.
Meanwhile another player transferred from LFC to West Ham, Andy Carroll, posted on twitter:
Great signing for us today! #cantwaittobeback #bargain
— Andy Carroll (@AndyTCarroll) 13 August 2013
Stewart Downing made 91 appearances for Liverpool and scored 7 times. His Premier League record at Liverpool was 65 appearance with 3 goals.
We wish Stewart all the best at the Hammers.
Nice one West Ham. He’ll probably do a decent job for you as well.
Was just a bad fit at Liverpool – club was too big for him.