Flynn Downes drops a massive hint on future at West Ham and infuriates Southampton fans at their promotion parade.

Sunday’s play-off final saw Southampton beat Leeds United 1-0 to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. The Saints have played some electric football this season and the pivotal player to that has been Flynn Downes.

Whenever the West Ham loanee has been unavailable, they’ve been a completely different side and it’s one of the main reasons they missed out on automatic promotion.

His sensational form has sparked many conversations about whether he should be kept at the London Stadium, or whether he should be allowed to sign for the Saints permanently who will undoubtedly make him a priority after being promoted.

While there has been no decision whatsoever on his future, he may have dropped a massive hint as to where his head is at.

At Southampton’s promotion parade, the crowd were chanting “sign him up” towards the midfielder to which he was asked how it made him feel. “I love it,” he replied. “There‘s not too much I can say because I don’t want to get too much stick but we’ll see what happens.”

As he finished speaking, someone in the crowd shouted “Irons” to which Downes surprisingly shouted it back down the mic. Clearly, he realised his mistake straight away after it was met by boos and he quickly said he was joking.

Obviously, he’s a boyhood West Ham fan and there’s no doubt he’d love to be able to play for the club he grew up supporting but, at the same time, he’s got to put his career first. He’s too good to sit around and not play; he will surely only stay if he can see a path to consistent first team football.