Matthew Upson joins Leicester City on one year contract

[Greg Bobkin]

In many respects, it's completely understandable.

One last payday in the Premier League; the club is trying to cut costs; and promoting the youth (Dunk) has become a priority (and a success). Whatever we would have offered MU, it would still not see him playing Premier League football, and certainly wouldn't be a Premier League wage.

My initial reaction was despair, but look at the bigger picture – not to mention how long we have to find extra bodies (Dunk has shown he is more than capable) and some quality. Look at Ward's season, after Bridge went. Another scenario like that wouldn't be a disaster, would it?

BHA is a very attractive proposition, which is why we've ended up with the like of Bridge, Ward, Upson and Kuszczak in the first place.

 

[spring hall convert]

Dunk has to start next season, that much was clear at the end of last season.

Rea is good enough to provide some 4th centre back cover, I suspect so in reality I think we need to sign 1 CB to compete with Greer and Dunk and ultimately take over from Greer. We probably would have had to do that next year anyway.

I'm sure the club would have been aware that Upson may well not be staying and have some options available.

We've lost a very good player but he's far from irreplaceable. Good luck Matty, it was a pleasure to watch you for 18 months.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Shame in some respects. He had an excellent season overall. I did think there were signs over the last couple of months that his age might be catching up with him. Not many absolute clangers, that's true, but there were a few moments when the defensive unit didn't look as solid as it had done, and he was certainly vulnerable to pacy attackers now and then. I suspect his popularity shielded him from criticism for little errors that Greer would have been slated for (I know there was at least one game where I thought Greer was the outstanding centre half and Upson was playing catch up).

Nonetheless, he was a good signing for us, and I don't think anyone can blame him for jumping at the chance of one last throw of the dice in the Premier League. I'm not sure he'll play regularly, but then again he's probably not fazed by that at his age. I have a feeling that, in a year's time, we'll be looking at this situation in a similar way to the way we view Wayne Bridge now: thanks for a lot of good memories, shame your last play off game wasn't quite up to the usual immaculate standards, and realising that we got the last good season out of a player nearing the end of his career.

Good luck to the guy. I don't think we'll struggle to find an adequate centre half replacement (assuming we're looking for one). Far too many drama queens on here

 

[EastUpperSeagull]

Might be on my own with this but I'm not as disappointed as most on here, yes he was a good player for us but he's 35 now and personally I think he faded a bit in the second half of last season.

If we are hoping the new manager is going to play a more attacking brand of football then we will have to play higher up the pitch and Upson just doesn't have the legs for that (nor Greer worryingly)

Upson has been great for us but l'm looking at the Wayne Bridge loss of last season that actually turned out with us dodging a bullet.

Agreed that him or Greer aren't quick enough for a full on attacking style. My only concern is we don't replace him!

 

[kemptown kid]

Shame, as with Tommy, Orlandi and Dave, but this will give our new manager plenty of opportunity to build the team they want rather than working in the shadow of Gus. Let's hope we get a good 'builder' who is happy to work within the budget and ethos of the club, including bringing through young players - one of whom, Louis Dunk, certainly deserves and needs a run in the team as our left sided centre back, so Upson's departure, after a brilliant, deserved player of the year season, perhaps not as disastrous as it might have been.

 

[brakespear]

Oh well, sad to see him leave but at least we have some decent cover, another position to fill in the summer though.

 

[Russconha]

annoyed.

This imo is another failing of the often poor club administration re contracts.

Did the club not consider him good enough if we made the prem? of course he was, as Leicester's faith has proved, and another one of our best players is allowed to run his contract down and walk, why oh why did they leave it too late and until his contract had run down?

rather than say oh well we move on (and lose our best defender) those responsible should answer why it was left to offer him a deal after his last deal ran out.... reeks of amateur hour, and somebody should be held to account so it never happens again

I met him after the Yeovil game and he was asked if he would still be with us next season. He said he would love to be, but it all depends on what division we are in.

Basically, he wants PL football. Not sure how the club administration can do anything in this situation.

 

[Wozza]

The Leicester fans are huffing and puffing saying he's not good enough and past it... perhaps they should take a look at our defensive record since he came to us 18 months ago.

Different league.

He wasn't good enough to get into the Stoke team 18 months ago.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

annoyed.

This imo is another failing of the often poor club administration re contracts.

Did the club not consider him good enough if we made the prem? of course he was, as Leicester's faith has proved, and another one of our best players is allowed to run his contract down and walk, why oh why did they leave it too late and until his contract had run down?

rather than say oh well we move on (and lose our best defender) those responsible should answer why it was left to offer him a deal after his last deal ran out.... reeks of amateur hour, and somebody should be held to account so it never happens again

The club was probably waiting to see if we got promoted. I'm guessing there were two contracts put to MU - one based on being in the Premier League, the other based on being in the Championship.

Why assume it is the club's fault? Maybe he didn't want to sign it or make a decision until the end of the season to see what division we would be in?

I don't care what you say, there is no way we can compete with clubs in the Premier League. No-one is to blame - MU wants one last bumper payday, Brighton and Hove Albion want to control their costs. Can you imagine if we, like Reading last season, paid through the nose to keep Upson here and we were a) still in the Championship and/or b) he got injured!

No-one needs to be "held to account" it's just one of those things.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Am I missing something, who else has gone?



EDIT: I'm guessing you are referring to TK - I really don't think he's going to be a huge loss.

Dave and Orlandi would both have been on decent money.

 

[spring hall convert]

Dave and Orlandi would both have been on decent money.

And neither of them was really earning it - again no great loss either of them.

 

[Acker79]

He was certainly making more errors towards the end of the season (not just the tackle, there was another late game where he gifted the ball to the opposition who then ran straight at our goal and scored, and in another game a similar thing happened, but didn't result in a goal), and missed more games towards the end of the season. Those were the main reasons I said I wouldn't offer him a contract in the thread a couple of weeks back about which out of contract players you'd keep.

There was the point earlier in this thread that there will only be 38 league games for him, so maybe that load will be lighter, but will the games be more intense making them harder games to get through?

A disappointment, because even if he only played in half our games, his experience would help with dunk and others coming through, and it's a worry that it's another player that needs replacing, another member of our stout defence (the main reason we finished so high, give our low scoring record) gone, and the first news from the players we offered contracts to and it's negative, but it's still so early that it seems unnecessary to get angry or worried just yet.

 

[Seagull kimchi]

If we ask nicely do you think Bournemuff will give our cookie back?

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Really disappointed, but good luck to him....favourite player the last 2 seasons by a mile.

 

[banjo]

Shame. Good luck to him.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

The other thing to consider, when it comes to Dunk, is that he could get annoyed at being overlooked and want a move elsewhere. By making him a first team regular not only do we make him happy, but we also potentially see his value rise, and suddenly have a very saleable asset. Something that wouldn't happen with Upson, as he will probably retire after next season.

If Dunk has a good couple of seasons, he'll be catching the eye of some top clubs, and TB might want to cash in. Look at the Derby model - Clough trimmed the wage bill right back and brought the youngsters through. Now a lot of those players are on the verge of the Premier League.

 

[APACHE]

Yes good luck to Mr Upson and thanks but let's be clear the team's defense has been set-up to play a certain way for the last 3 seasons and we've all seen that it has lacked real pace in that time hence the need to have a slow build-up to attack and keep ball. When we've tried to speed things up the team has been found out on the counter-attack and so hopefully with the amount of players moving out this will free up money to sign younger and quicker players. We can only wait and see who the new boss will be but if Mr Bloom wants another tilt at promotion next season we need to bring in some real quality but not all at the tail end of their careers.

 

[peterward]

The club was probably waiting to see if we got promoted. I'm guessing there were two contracts put to MU - one based on being in the Premier League, the other based on being in the Championship.

Why assume it is the club's fault? Maybe he didn't want to sign it or make a decision until the end of the season to see what division we would be in?

I don't care what you say, there is no way we can compete with clubs in the Premier League. No-one is to blame - MU wants one last bumper payday, Brighton and Hove Albion want to control their costs. Can you imagine if we, like Reading last season, paid through the nose to keep Upson here and we were a) still in the Championship and/or b) he got injured!

No-one needs to be "held to account" it's just one of those things.

you assume 2 contracts were offered?? we have no way of knowing if that's correct.

Even if we were promoted Upson could've left to Leicester who may have offered more cash or anywhere else for less cash as he was without contract. I agree if a player is determined not to sign a new contract there is nothing you can do, but remember the big picture here, loads of players contracts ran down at this season end, and then after that event we have Nathan Jones and Burke deciding who is allowed to leave and who is offered a new deal (Upson included), this is way to late.

If it is 2 contract offers as you guess, or something else, the club, should have a pretty good idea who is wanted and who can make the step up and who isn't, rather than decide after contracts have run down which is to late...... could you imagine the same happening to Man U players? allow half the teams contracts to expire and then simply hope the ones they want will stay?

Football is predatory, someone is always going to covet our best players and we need to do more before the ones we want have contracts expire, after which we have no control.

in the case of Upson a bit of foresight and persistent determination to pin them down before contracts expire was needed. A firm decision before his deal expired. He may have said "i'll wait" but it seems his contract decision as with the others in the squad was all done after his deal expired, by all means offer them a championship/Premier league either/or but to leave it till its to simply to late and we're powerless to the predators circling?

It is to late now and i wish him well, and i dont say this to deride our club, we all want the best players to stay and to succeed............. i still maintain that making decisions after contracts have expired is amateurish and removes control from the club. Its hard to find players of Upsons quality to wear an Albion shirt, If he leaves, let it only be because he rejected the contract offer made to him early (before his current expired) and despite the clubs every effort to persuade him to stay.

That needs foresight.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Disappointed after his excellent season last year, but

Anyone who expects a 35 year old centre back in the championship to maintain his level of last season is either very optimistic or under 25 !

Lewis Dunk's time to shine

 

[Munkfish]

This has hurt me.

So far this season we have lost all bar one of my favourite players!

Barnes
Bridcutt
Orlandi
Upson