No-one is buying Upson for anything more than £1 mil but even then we'd be massively lucky to get an offer that large. Nobody really needs him that much and I doubt the clubs who would consider him, Chelsea, Spurs and maybe L'pool would want to give him a contract longer and more lucrative than he is already on. Financially its in his best interests to run his contract out completely and negotiate a new one when he is a free agent on vastly increased wages due to a lack of fee. Upson is mercenary enough to do that as well, knowing he will be playing first team football for the rest of the season if he stays with us.
If Spurs wanna do business on Upson, swap him and a few million quid for Kranjcar. Its the best kind of deal we can hope for. Upson thrown in to reduce the other players fee. The only trouble with the Sturridge suggestion is that he has an opinion of himself (as well as a wage packet) vastly above what we can offer. Kranjcar has got to be worth a shout though, played virtually no football this year, wont have to relocate.
Why would Upson move in Jan? From his POV, it would jsut seriously cut into the wages he could get as a free transfer.
Unless Woy fancies a cheap, English CB and Upson feels its a dream move I think he'll be staying the rest of the season.
Imo, we need a no nonsense CB and a striker who can finish who isnt just a big hold up man with hardly any goal instinct like C.Cole and Piq. I'm not saying someone prolific or someone well known, someone like Ilan who knows where the net is for example.
A LM and LB would be nice too, but not the priority imo.
BTW, notice how we needed all these things in the summer too?
Hopefully we have some money to play with by selling C.Cole, who I said in the summer is just a carbon copy of Piq with a bigger name so a bigger fee for us.
westhamerica wrote:
Either way, Davies in on loan with a view for the rest of the season sounds like the most sensible move in the this thread...if Villa are willing to part with him, that is.
He's played the princely sum of 2 games for them since Aug 2009. Dunne, Collins, Cuellar ahead of him, I think something could be done.
fjthegrey wrote:No-one is buying Upson for anything more than £1 mil but even then we'd be massively lucky to get an offer that large. Nobody really needs him that much and I doubt the clubs who would consider him, Chelsea, Sp*rs and maybe L'pool would want to give him a contract longer and more lucrative than he is already on. Financially its in his best interests to run his contract out completely and negotiate a new one when he is a free agent on vastly increased wages due to a lack of fee. Upson is mercenary enough to do that as well, knowing he will be playing first team football for the rest of the season if he stays with us.
If Sp*rs wanna do business on Upson, swap him and a few million quid for Kranjcar. Its the best kind of deal we can hope for. Upson thrown in to reduce the other players fee. The only trouble with the Sturridge suggestion is that he has an opinion of himself (as well as a wage packet) vastly above what we can offer. Kranjcar has got to be worth a shout though, played virtually no football this year, wont have to relocate.
I should have read this first, this is basically what I was getting at with Upson. If Spurs wanted him I think theyd let Kranjcar go for him and a few mil too, because not only is he surplus, they also payed f*** all for him.
Upson is definitely a good shout for Spurs because he would probably be a lot better with Gallas, King, Bassong next to him and he'd be eligible for European competition as well. On the other hand, we'd get some value for Upson and perhaps a player who could bring us something different. We'd need a CB from elsewhere but I personally am in full support of recruiting from the fizzy pop. There's got to be a decent, young CB down there with a will to prove himself for a relatively small fee.
fjthegrey wrote:Because that could happen... :arry:
Lets be a touch more realistic shall we.
Why would you say the Cole for Babel & Upson for Keane deals be so far fetched? Cole & Upson are, behind Parker, arguably our most sellable players. Cole has been off form and Upson is stalling on a new contract, Babel is a bit part player for Pool and Keane is nowhere near the first team. Both Keane and Babel would give the team a different edge and a fresh start, Upson would get his move to a bigger club and Liverpool would get a forward who they crave since Crouch left.
Not beyond the realms of possibility for me by any means.
The reason why they are both so unattainable is that I'm convinced we tried to sign both of them in the summer and neither wanted to come. Our position is far worse and consequently less desirable to them now.
Cole and Babel in a straight swap? A wonderfully talented but big ego striker who, despite playing quite poorly for a few years is still considered a major young european talent, for a player who we couldn't shift in the summer and has done absolutely nothing since then to persuade more bidders to come in for him. To expect a straight swap is pretty far fetched but to expect money in the deal as well is truly ridiculous.
Upson and Keane similar story except Upson's value is probably now under a million and Keane's is a lot more. Plus he is a striker with a proven record and they are always worth more. Neither would dream of coming here.
You have to remember we tried to flog these guys all summer. We failed. You don't get bargains in January.
So Villa feel that at 37 years of age Pires can obviously do a job for them, why oh why did we not show an interest then when we don't really have a creative midfielder, Noble out, Hitz out, perfect opportunity to pick up a free agent till the end of the season.....who the f*ck are our scouts and why the f*ck are we always so slow with transfers. And yes, how many times has Keane moved in the last 18 months and why the f*ck have we not tried to get him.....
OzzHammer wrote:So Villa feel that at 37 years of age Pires can obviously do a job for them, why oh why did we not show an interest then when we don't really have a creative midfielder, Noble out, Hitz out, perfect opportunity to pick up a free agent till the end of the season.....who the f*ck are our scouts and why the f*ck are we always so slow with transfers. And yes, how many times has Keane moved in the last 18 months and why the f*ck have we not tried to get him.....
Maybe we have been in for both of them, there must be 100's of enquiries about players that we are none the wiser about. Maybe the financial aspects were too much, maybe they wanted longer contracts/shorter contracts, or maybe, just maybe the respective clubs that those players went to were just a better propersition for them. Villa or bottom of the league West Ham? its not a tough one is it really.