The question is simple, should we take it if it is offered? The clubs rumoured to be interested are Unreal City and Tottenham, though 'Arry insists he isn't in the market for anybody this January, apart from a good brief to defend him in court of course. With a change of manager, will City still be as keen on Upson, or might Mancini have different ideas? City supporters who have left comments on here have consistently maintained that they do not need another centre back but the evidence contradicts that: they can score until the cash cows come home, but they are as strong at the back as Stuart Lubbock.
The argument in favour of selling Upson is that he is not getting any younger and only has one year left on his contract. His value will drop by the week from February onwards so this is the ideal time to cash in on him from an accountant's point of view - and of course, accountants are now running the club!
The argument against is obvious: the sale of Collins sent shock waves through our defence from which we are only now just recovering. Gabbidon is injury prone. Tomkins is inconsistent. Da Costa is out of favour. Upson is unfussy but effective. He holds our defence together and before we sell him, we had better be bloody sure that we have somebody good lined up to replace him. If not, we will struggle to survive in the Prem. There's not much point in banking £12m if you wave goodbye to the Premiership television money in the process. If we had to sell somebody to generate funds for rebuilding, I would favour Green, Behrami or Parker over Upson personally. Our weakest areas are at the back and up front, so it seems madness to me to consider weakening the defence still further by parting with Upson.
Had we retained Collins, I would have favoured selling Upson now. But Collins was sold. There are not a lot of quality centre backs available at the moment, and when sold, they command very high prices - as evidenced by Lescott and Turner. Man Utd may need a centre half or two themselves and Arsenal should not be ruled out either. Maybe we have identified somebody through Nani but backing his judgement appears a very hit and miss business doesn't it?
Personally, I would be delighted with a boring transfer window, perhaps with us picking up Kezman on loan and signing Sol Campbell, and selling nobody. Unless, of course we are sold next week, with money injected into the club. Well, we can dream can't we?
20 comments:
I so agree! Look how dire we were when Upson was injured! We must try not to sell anyone! Its going to be tough but most of all DONT sell to the spuds!
He won't be going anywhere this winter imo. The price tag that will be placed upon him (if anybody really goes in for him) will be a stupid one which would be more designed to ward these other clubs off if anything. No club, no matter who they are and how much money they have got is gong to pay big money for a player in his 30's that is coming close to the end of his contract. If Upson does go, just like Bellamy, it would be of his doing, but I don't think that he would want to go right now, not while he's getting regular first team football just to spend time bench warming for a bigger club, because that would certainly hamper his chances of reaching The World Cup Finals and both Tottscum and City already have their fair share of centre halves, it's probably once again just paper talk bollocks as usual as the only players that want to leave their clubs are the ones who aint getting regular first team football, like Pavlyuchenko who has not been getting much first team football, if any, so he want's to leave S***s to aid his chances of being picked for Russia and go to S.A in the summer.
Keep up mate, Russia aren't going to South Africa so that hardly comes into Pavlova's reckoning.
As for Upson bench warming, he is good enough to hold down a regular place in the Arsenal, Man City and Tottenham defences.
£12m to cement a place in the Champions League? Good business if it can be done. Let's say Upson has 3 years ahead of him - that's £4m per year, no big deal if you can tap into the Champions League dosh. And anyway, whats £12m to Man City? Money is no object as they proved when paying £23m for Lescott. I know who the better buy is - Upson at half the price!
Sorry, I forgot that Russia got knocked out, I just used him as an example because he was the first player that came into my head because I read something about him this morning and the story implied that he wanted to leave to improve his chances of playing for Russia, so I think that you get my drift there.
Easy mistake to make because Russia should be there as Arseshavings is one of the best players in the world. Does that make Huddink a bad manager? Funny game football!
Upson wants out and he wont sign a new contract. Regardless of what we think we should cash in and get rid or otherwise we might have another mini judas on our hands. We should of done the same with Ashton when the offer of 10million was made.....
And if we had of sold Ashton what would you and many more Hammers have said? Hindsight is a wonderful thing my friend isn't it?
I say bite city's arm off for the cash & pick up sol on a free,
The biggest reason for this is that if we sell him or not we cant build for the furture until the debt mountain is under control.
I liken our plight to a chav that has run up a lot of credit/store cards, because he/she whats to keep up with the Jones, and does not realise that, buying that new car is pie in the sky,
and are more likely to loss there house.
Sol has been training with Arsenal, if he is up to doing a job in the Prem, surely they will sign him. If he isn't, why would we want to pay him a salary. Looked old at past it at Notts County apparently.
A bit like you!
I've never been to Notts County!
Excellent use of the Boston Matrix! - MEH
Excellent use of the Boston Matrix! - MEH
You what Kareem?
The picture that you used for this blogpost is of the Boston Matrix. It's a tool used in marketing to determine the status of the product in the industry!
Really? Is that part of your degree?
Looked it up! Not many stars at Upton Park! Reckon Diamanti is our problem child. As for the dogs. Boa must be up there!
diamanti is wot we have been missing for a few years now someone who will take on players and then jus shoot he looks like 1 of our best players at the moment and i wud say upson is the one we shud cash in not green parker behrami or cole honestly actually if 20 mil came in for cole like they sed i wud take that buy a right bak and striker
diamanti is wot we have been missing for a few years now someone who will take on players and then jus shoot he looks like 1 of our best players at the moment and i wud say upson is the one we shud cash in not green parker behrami or cole honestly actually if 20 mil came in for cole like they sed i wud take that buy a right bak and striker
I know what you mean dan,
But I see Diamanti as one of those players, in the le tiss mould, A luxury player who would complement the team when playing well,
My only doubt is, if he has it in him to dig deep when we are in the shit, like we are now.
Hope im wrong on this though.
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