It’s widely known that Man Utd have adopted a couple of firm policies when it comes to player dealings.

Firstly, they want to stick to players under 26 years old when it comes to bringing in new faces to retain a potential resale value.

Secondly, they won’t allow existing players to enter into the last two years of their contracts if at all possible. Again, this is intended to protect a resale value that decreases rapidly if the player is to leave during the transfer windows that follow; at 18 months and 12 months remaining on their existing deals.

This isn’t anything particularly new or revelatory, but it’s something that’s come into sharp focus lately.

Last year, towards the end of the season, Ashley Young said all the right things about entering into a new contract until it came time to actually put pen to paper and then he preferred to “concentrate on his football”.

Heavy things those pens, lifting one is known to ruin a season. It’s a good job Ash saved his strength.

Now it’s Stewart Downing’s turn. He hasn’t talked in quite the same terms in regards to penning a new deal, but he’s certainly expressed his happiness at Villa despite such a poor season.

He talked recently about the confidence boost that being offered a new deal has provided and all indications seemed extremely positive.

We’re pretty much resigned to losing Ashley Young this summer, the third summer running of losing one of our key players, if not the key player, but Player of the Year Downing was providing some encouragement.

And then along came this:

Stewart Downing
I know the club are keen for me to extend my contract as I only have two years left on my deal.

My agent had a recent meeting with our chief executive. However, I am 26, and at a major crossroads in my career, so I won’t be committing to a new deal at the moment.

I want to keep playing and enjoying my football. When I was injured that made me realise what it can be like to be out for such a long time. It hurt. The most important thing is to play football, but I do want to play in the Champions League at some point.

I’d love to see Stewart Downing playing in the Champions League too. Call me selfish, call me deluded, but I’d like to see him wearing claret and blue when he does it. It doesn’t feel like he thinks that’s possible.

I appreciate that we can’t quite muster Man Utd’s clout when it comes to player dealings, but we need to get some sort of strategy in place with regards to key players and their contracts. This reactionary, whimsical method where the players seem to be holding all the aces can’t be a recipe for success.

If we don’t, we’ll see this kind of hedging summer after summer and we’ll be nothing more than a stepping stone on the way to fulfilling bigger personal ambitions.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t quite see this as the U-turn I’ve seen it portrayed as elsewhere. Expressing a willingness to see out an existing commitment, even if it meant playing in the Championship, doesn’t automatically mean there’s a desire there to enter into a new one.

Nevertheless, the signs were very positive from Downing and now there’s an unsettling question mark at the very least.

But look, we’ve got lots of things to get through this summer, there’s a long way to go and Downing might just be one more thing on the list. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, he may well end up staying and signing a new deal at some point before summer 2012. He might not.

As ever, it’s worth reading the full interview at The Northern Echo linked in the quotebox above. It’s not that the quote has been taken out of context, it hasn’t, but it’s not really part of any larger expression of discontent either. Quite the opposite I felt.

Assest

My view, for what it’s worth, if I were in a position of influence and had the slightest suspicion that Downing would be likely to follow the path Ashley Young has (and, to a lesser degree, the one followed by Gareth Barry), I’d cash in on him this summer.

It pains me to say so as I’m a big fan and think he can be a major player for us next season. Nevertheless, a line must be drawn at some point.

£15m is the much mooted figure for Ash, either from Liverpool or Man Utd, doesn’t matter which. Downing doesn’t have quite the profile, but it’s been a strong season and he does have that extra year on his deal; he ought to be worth at least the same.

At least £30m and a significant saving from the wage bill then. Plus whatever Randy was looking to inject this summer and anything raised through other sales, although I wouldn’t expect a fortune there.

I don’t know if “warchest” would be the right term, but a few very decent players could be brought in and augmented with the players that stay and the youngsters still making their breakthrough.

I would imagine more out than in.

Of course, not much can be done without resolving the manager situation first. That’s coming in the next couple of weeks, from then on I’d like to see a positive set of actions akin to the business in January.

There’s absolutely no need to panic, there’s plenty of time ahead to get this ship back on course, but we’re fond of saying that no player or manager is bigger than Aston Villa Football Club; it’s time to act like it.