Why we SHOULD have sold Parker in the summer.

So, Sullivan and Gold were true to their word. Parker was not sold. Mr West Ham was given a new contract. Brilliant!

Until you look at the table.

"But where would we be without Parker?" his advocates will demand? Maybe not bottom is the obvious reply.

"But where would we be without Parker's goals?" comes the retort. Maybe not bottom is again the reply.

"But Parker has been our best player all season!" fires back the Parker bandwagon. And that, my friends, is precisely the problem.

Now, I admit that Parker's goals have amazed me so far this season because his record has been so poor in the past, but again, we have to say, so what? We are still bottom. For all his drive, for all his goals, for all his heart on his sleeve passion, Parker's presence and style of play may just be stopping us from progressing as a team.

That needs some explaining I accept. Well first off, you have to ask where the team and squad are weakest. Most would agree that we desperately need a quality left back and a goal scorer or two. Parker's goals have been remarkable for another reason too - no other bugger apart from Piquionne is scoring!

Now, I still find myself wondering where we might be in the table had Parker gone to Spurs and Keane and O'Hara had come in the opposite direction. Might the team not look a little more balanced?

If that deal had proved impossible, had we eked out £10million for Parker, might we have been able to play the market and signed players to plug the obvious holes we have in the team?

And just as important, might the team have developed a heart outside of Parker's chest if he wasn't at the centre of affairs? For all his drive and passion, he does run up a lot of blind alleys in a game. For all his goals, he does make some dumb choices when the ball breaks to him just outside the box, with the decision to let fly clouding out any bigger picture of the pitch. For all his ability, he does lack that extra ounce of class, yet the team use him as if he is the new Maradona.

Capello doesn't pick Parker for a reason. He has a poor tackling technique and concedes free kicks unnecessarily in dangerous areas of the pitch. Nor is his ball retention brilliant. And this "patch" apart, he doesn't score enough goals either.

If Parker doesn't play today at Anfield it will feel like a Hammer blow. But if we got a result without him, would Grant DARE to pick a side without Scotty the next game he was available? Not a chance in hell! Parker is now bigger the team, bigger the club, bigger than the manager. And the trouble is, Parker isn't Gerrard or Lampard or Terry or Rooney, Parker is just an averagely good midfield player who covers a lot of ground. And for that, we are paying him £4million a year in wages.

Had we sold him, where would we be now? Well it couldn't be much worse, could it?