By Myles Palmer
Was Arsene Wenger wrong to sell Matthew Upson?
A majority of my discerning Gooner friends think that Upson should not have been sold to Birmingham in January.
He played nine Premiership games for Steve Bruce and did well and will now play for England against Serbia tomorrow night
A lot of questions have been asked on this topic.
Was Upson treated fairly?
Was he given a chance?
Does Wenger trust the technique of British players?
Is Upson better than Cygan?
Even if he is not, shouldn’t Arsenal have kept Upson till the end of the season?
Would he have helped them to retain the title?
Would he have made a difference against Villa, Bolton and Leeds?
IT’S A COMPLICATED ONE
Just asking the questions is complicated, let alone answering them.
My view?
I think I’m with Arsene on this one.
Upson is great in the air, but injury-prone.
He is fast, but not over the first five yards.
And he panics under pressure.
Would he have grown out of that if Wenger believed in him a bit more?
Personally, I wish Upson had made it at Arsenal.And I wish him well now.
I hope he starts 90 games for Birmingham by the end
of 2004-2005.
Fact : Upson is not a kid – he is 24 now.
Keown is 37, Ferrara 36, so Upson is a young centreback.
Savage told my pal Hughie that Upson is a model pro, first into training, last out.
He should have left Arsenal sooner, for his own sake.
If Upson can start 25 England games he will prove that I was wrong.
And that AW was wrong to sell him in January 2003.
Nobody has proved Wenger wrong yet.
But there is always a first time.
Nobody is infallible and nobody can predict the future in football.
At the moment we can only say : there is a big difference between playing for Birmingham and playing for Arsenal.
June 2nd 2003