Upson

[west_ham]

I say sack him. SB is taking the Michael:

http://westhamfc.blogspot.com/2007/01/upson-bid-rejected_23.html#links

[Blizzaro]

Shame Upson is our and we are keeping him. But if west ham come in with eight millions go on then take him, with eight millions we could buy couple of decent and younger defender that would be better.

[amancalledmikey]

Curbishley seems dead set on us having the slowest back line in the Premier League or, at least, deconstructing Pardew's back line.

[Blizzaro]

Well Anton seems not like last season and face it he got personality problem ever worser than Rio. Davenport is quite fast, Neill well he is a quality defender.
Anyway Upson can handle the back line quite well, see how he handled Martins, Milner, Dyer recently so you cant complain if you get him

[west_ham]

I was doubtful about £4m. £6m is excessive, £8m is a joke.

I think SB needs to study the market a bit more and get a better idea of how much a fizzy pop defender peaks at.

We could probably sign Ben Haim for less than that.

[CescMate]

6 million is a high price but fair for a player of his class. Anything over is a desperation purchase.

[amancalledmikey]

A quality player is only a quality player if he's out on the field. Matthew Upson's injury record is absymal. Knowing this, Steve Bruce has said he wants the player to stay, setting down an unattainable price. However, my worry is that our club truly have the means and the will to sign him and will meet the 8m price tag. Why they want to do that, I have no idea.

[Blizzaro]

I was doubtful about £4m. £6m is excessive, £8m is a joke.

I think SB needs to study the market a bit more and get a better idea of how much a fizzy pop defender peaks at.

We could probably sign Ben Haim for less than that.
But SB is doing what everyone is doing if the player nationality is english then multiply by three or four and that the average price didn't you know that durrr.

[blainehammer]

Shame Upson is our and we are keeping him. But if west ham come in with eight millions go on then take him, with eight millions we could buy couple of decent and younger defender that would be better.

Do you have an "s" on your keyboard?

[Birminghammer]

blaine - I think he used it up on the word 'millions'.

I have an affection for Brum City fans being as I live in the area. They are always the poor relations of The Vile. Did you hear the story about the Birmingham City official diary which listed all of the clubs historical honours. Unfortunately a prankster listed Aston Villas, history including European success, as The Blues own.

scroll down to the BCFC part of this site:

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/championship/index.html

[hammer_scout51]

If we are going to pay 8 million for Upson, wouldn't it be worth going the extra million for Davies?

[hammermolder]

AC seems to have the blinkers on when it comes to Upson,i thought 4 mill was over the top,but 8,keep the money for the off season,Bruce is trying to have us over

[west_ham]

But SB is doing what everyone is doing if the player nationality is english then multiply by three or four and that the average price didn't you know that durrr.
After we got relegated we sold some English players, arguably better than Upson, for less than £8m.

Joe Cole, who was a blossoming flower but is now pressed and preserved for the Chelsea scrap book, was sold for a piffling £6.6m. Bare in mind also that prices have dipped slightly since then.

If we had sold him as a PL club we would have got more. It's just a fact of the game, fizzy pop players sell for less.

[amancalledmikey]

After we got relegated we sold some English players, arguably better than Upson, for less than £8m.

Joe Cole, who was a blossoming flower but is now pressed and preserved for the Chelsea scrap book, was sold for a piffling £6.6m. Bare in mind also that prices have dipped slightly since then.

If we had sold him as a PL club we would have got more. It's just a fact of the game, fizzy pop players sell for less.

6.6m when we needed to sell. 8m doesn't buy you very much nowadays.

[Blizzaro]

If West Ham tried that, West brom will increase the price to 20 millions.
Birmingham and West Brom just don't want to sell their star defender.

[norwaytips]

According to the Times, they just turned down 8 mill. Now this is mad when he goes for free in the Summer. At least he knows we want him.:confused:

[Solsombra]

I thought Upson had 18 months left on his contract but I wouldn't swear to it. Besides, they will make around 30 million just for winning promotion and that looks a certainty right now. Also, Arsenal have a hefty sell-on clause which would immediately take a couple of million off their cut, plus they would have fund a replacement and he wouldn't be of comparable quality. I can't see the deal making too much financial or football sense to them at the moment.

[hammer_scout51]

I thought Upson had 18 months left on his contract but I wouldn't swear to it. Besides, they will make around 30 million just for winning promotion and that looks a certainty right now. Also, Arsenal have a hefty sell-on clause which would immediately take a couple of million off their cut, plus they would have fund a replacement and he wouldn't be of comparable quality. I can't see the deal making too much financial or football sense to them at the moment.

Your right mate Upson has until June 2008 on his contract. If it were 2007 we would have him signed by now for half what we bid.

[norwaytips]

Now his agent is complaining that B'ham have broken their word by no letting him speak to West Ham. It aint over til the fat lady sings.

[west_ham]

Yes, Upson himself is not happy:

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=444661&CPID=10&clid=41&lid=2&title=Upson+annoyed+by+Blues+stance&channel=football_home&

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=444540&CPID=10&clid=21&lid=&title=Upson+agent+in+Blues+claim&channel=&

I had a feeling this might happen because BCFC are playing funny buggers. I think that SB never wanted to sell him so he played the old trick of placing a huge fee over his head thinking that no-one with their heads screwed on would buy him.

Then we came along and the whole thing has backfired on him. We have called his bluff and he is now panicking. Really we should be offloading some of our unused players onto BCFC as part of the deal, like Mears and Mullins. This gets rid of them and keeps the transfer fee realistic.