Upson stays/goes

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 20th August 2010

Avram Grant has insisted that contract rebel Matthew Upson will stay at West Ham - hours after David Gold admitted he wanted to sell the England defender.

Grant, talking ahead of tomorrow's Premier League clash with bogey team Bolton at the Boleyn, said: "Ninety per cent of the squad will stay and Matthew Upson is in that 90% who will stay here. We like him, he's good for us and a good captain and he will stay.

Yet only hours earlier, and in stark contrast to Grant's comments, Gold, speaking about the club captain's immediate future, insisted that he would snap up the first decent offer for the England international.

"We want to keep Matt here but at the same time we know we may have to sell him if he tells us he doesn't want to stay," Gold told the Daily Star. "We don't want to let him leave the club for nothing. It's a difficult balancing act and a dilemma for us.

"If someone came in and bid £6m or £7m for him, we would have to sell. We want to sit down and talk to him about a new contract - and quickly - because we are in a tricky situation."

Upson has repeatedly refused to sign a contract extension and had hoped that a good World Cup would have secured him a dream move to a marquee club.

However the former Luton Town trainee's hopes were wiped out in one afternoon after he was held culpable for at least one of the German goals that sent England packing in South Africa, since when only Sunderland have shown a passing interest in signing him.

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