Are West Ham interested in Stewart Downing?

Stewart Downing, is he actually on West Ham United’s radar or is it just a load of red top balderdash as per usual?

Big Sam Allardyce’s assistant Neil McDonald was posed the Downing transfer question, however his answer has been taken a few different ways by members of the press with some insisting West Ham are holding a candle for Downing and others suggesting an interest snubbing rebuttal.

During an interview with TalkSport, McDonald was asked about the Downing situation, he answered:

He’s a very good player. A player of that calibre and West Ham being involved  would be great, but it’s all paper talk at the moment.

To me it looks like McDonald is saying Downing is a good player, but not a player we are looking to bring to West Ham.

SkySports agree that interest is being played down in the winger, however I guess it’s how you interpret the last part of McDonalds quote – it’s all paper talk at the moment – as Goal seem to think West Ham are desperate to bring Downing in to supply Andy Carroll with crosses into the box, it’s not like we have Matt Jarvis or anything is it?

I usually try to find some video highlights for a player West Ham are looking to bring in, but Downing’s Liverpool highlight reel since his £20 million move from Aston Villa was about 5 seconds long so I thought I would save wasting your time.

Even though I hope the Downing story is a load of rubbish, I still think West Ham could be in the market for another wide player, it was only last week West Ham were apparently close to tying up a deal for Ecuador winger Jefferson Montero, however like most transfer news recently it seems to have died a death.