sunday's gossip includes west ham

[MB]

I'm not a massive fan of Anton, but he is a steal at £2m. I'd much rather see him alongsode Upson though rather than instead of!

[Bamber Gascoigne]

Sounds like one Julian Faubert about two years ago - any old clogger can look mustard on youtube!

My comment "would be a great acquisition" were based on seeing him play for Lyon / Ivory Coast mate - not you tube!

"clogger"

[West Dan]

"We want to build a team around our youth products."

Anton is one of our youth products

[westlondonhammer]

I'm not a massive fan of Anton, but he is a steal at £2m. I'd much rather see him alongsode Upson though rather than instead of!

I agree with that... for 2 million quid, he would be a very good signing

[Scaloni Is The Messiah]

Anton is one of our youth products

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's the message we'd be sending to Spence and N'Gala if we got Anton back - 'we want to build a team around academy products'. I imagine it's more encouraging to see loads of academy products in the team than if you're at Chelsea or somewhere and the best an academy product can hope for is ten minutes off the bench before being sent out on loan to the championship.

[prophet:marginal]

If his contract with Sunderland was for 4 years, they've probably only paid £2M of the actual fee so far.

If it is true that Bruce isn't interested, then I can see that we may be able to get the £2M deal, but no-one else can.

For me, its a backwards step, especially if we're losing Upson in the process.

[Chuck D]

I'd be happy to see Lips back, but not at the expense of Upson.

[Scaloni Is The Messiah]

I'd be happy to see Lips back, but not at the expense of Upson.

Obviously, I'd rather it didn't happen, but if we need to make £10m somewhere, that would be the way I'd want us to do it rather than, say, sell Parker.

[Happyhammer93]

If we could get Anton for £2m then yes, but only if it meant we also kept Upson.

[MB]

Obviously, I'd rather it didn't happen, but if we need to make £10m somewhere, that would be the way I'd want us to do it rather than, say, sell Parker.

Really? I rate Parker, but the 25 odd games a season you get out of him are a luxury compared to having a decent centre half.

Parker I could live without (we will for at least 10 games a season anyway), but we'd seriously struggle without Upson.

[Chuck D]

Obviously, I'd rather it didn't happen, but if we need to make £10m somewhere, that would be the way I'd want us to do it rather than, say, sell Parker.

We dont need to sell anyone. Scott and his new mate said so.

[Awbis]

Why is it always an either/or scenario?

I say yes for 2M and keep everyone!!!!


See optimism is soooo easy when you try!

[Dicksie's Right Boot]

If we lose Upson, it won't be our decision. It will be for professional ambition....more more likely the cash on offer!!

[claret parrot]

Selling Anton for £8m was great business. Buying him back at £2m is also very good business but I don't think I'd want him as a starting centre back, and would he be content as a squad player? Also his wage expectations would need pruning.

Upson has been excellent for us and we probably owe our top half finish to him. On the other hand he is 30, he is ambitious, and he is worth big money now, maybe not so in a year or two. Should we cash in? We have Collins who is very capable (if a little too injury prone) and Tomkins who has emerged as an excellent young defender. We also have Bondz N'Gala, Jordan Spence, and one or two others in the pipeline. We also have Davenport who's a very decent back up. It's a tricky one because our defence will be the poorer for selling Upson, but if we can invest the money in new players it may be worth doing. Arsenal need bolstering at the back and if we could get a sizeable fee plus Bendtner coming back the other way ... just an idea.

As for Gudjohsson there's no doubting his pedigree but what we need is an out and out striker. Not someone who'll play deep and make chances (EG), and not someone who is basically a wide player, but a proper striker with quality, awareness and who knows where the goal is ... someone like Dean Ashton in fact. Please let's give him one final chance to show what he is capable of. If he breaks down or gets crocked again, I swear I'll shut the fukc up and go with flow.

[libero]

West Ham want to bring Anton Ferdinand back to Upton Park from Sunderland in a cut-price deal. New Black Cats boss Steve Bruce does not want the 24-year-old, who moved to Wearside last summer, and Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola will make a £2m bid.
News of the World

Don't like to gloat, but I said this would happen back in April and mentioned it even earlier. I hope it comes off because I think Anton will become a very good CB in the next few years and because I don't like seeing WH Academy players at other clubs.

Hope it's not taken as an excuse to sell Upson though

[upton o'good]

West Ham want to bring Anton Ferdinand back to Upton Park from Sunderland in a cut-price deal. New Black Cats boss Steve Bruce does not want the 24-year-old, who moved to Wearside last summer, and Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola will make a £2m bid.
News of the World

Don't like to gloat, but I said this would happen back in April and mentioned it even earlier. I hope it comes off because I think Anton will become a very good CB in the next few years and because I don't like seeing WH Academy players at other clubs.

Hope it's not taken as an excuse to sell Upson though

The question anyone welcoming a move for Anton (with Sunderland taking a big loss on the price paid for him only 12 months ago) has to ask is: do you really think you are a better judge of a centreback than Steve Bruce. Like Bruce or loathe him, and my view is that he has done spectacurarly well at Wigan, one thing he can surely do is judge a centre back.

[kthammer]

[/quote]


The question anyone welcoming a move for Anton (with Sunderland taking a big loss on the price paid for him only 12 months ago) has to ask is: do you really think you are a better judge of a centreback than Steve Bruce. Like Bruce or loathe him, and my view is that he has done spectacurarly well at Wigan, one thing he can surely do is judge a centre back.[/quote]

Agreed. Have we no pride? Do we think we should be better than Bruce and Sunderland or not? Anton back is a ridiculous step back

[E13madness]

No eff way do i want to see Anton back at upton park.
I think collins, gabbs, tomkins are way better then in.

[Blažo]

Let's hope Upson doesn't leave, but if that happens, signing Anton for less than 3 mil. would be a good deal.
Gabs and Collins with constant injury problems, and Tomka still not much experienced (massive potential, though) ... would be useful.

[libero]

The question anyone welcoming a move for Anton (with Sunderland taking a big loss on the price paid for him only 12 months ago) has to ask is: do you really think you are a better judge of a centreback than Steve Bruce. Like Bruce or loathe him, and my view is that he has done spectacurarly well at Wigan, one thing he can surely do is judge a centre back.

I don't have the same faith as you do in Bruce's judgement on CBs or anything for that matter. As for him doing "spectacurarly well at Wigan", I think that could be regarded as a little over the top, don't you?

The history of football is full of players who have done well at one club, poorly at another, players who flourish under one manager and flounder under another. Nothing new in that.

The Anton/Bruce case in my opinion is not a simple case of Bruce not rating Anton, but rather Bruce wanting to have some cash to play with and to stamp his authority on the club. Keane idiotically paid well over the odds for Anton and chances are that Sunderland haven't got beyond paying the 2 million for him. Bruce has the choice of carrying on paying the other 6m, looking for a buyer who'll cover the original transfer, or cutting his losses, sending him back to West Ham and freeing up at least a part of that 6m for his summer transfer kitty. He's chosen the latter, and I don't think that's necessarily a reflection on his valuation of Anton Ferdinand as a CB.

And for West Ham, that all works out to be good business