PLAYER PROFILE

Matthew Upson

Position: Defence

Height: 6'1

Weight: 11st 4lbs

Date of Birth: 1979-04-18 Hartismere, England

Matthew Upson

Matthew Upson joined Birmingham City on a three and a half year deal during the transfer window in January 2003. His main motivation for leaving Arsenal was regular first team football, and manager Steve Bruce saw him as a bargain, paying only £1 million for the 23-year-old.

Upson had represented one of Arsenal's greatest hopes for the future. Although he had been with the club since 1997, following his £1m move from Luton, he had failed to hold a regular place in the Arsenal first team, not least because of the excellent form of Tony Adams - now retired - as well as Martin Keown and Sol Campbell.

He has greatly benefitted from training with these players and demonstrated his calm, assured and intelligent touch on several occasions for England's under-21 side in the 1998/99 season.

His fledging career has twice been held up by injuries. In December 1999, he suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. That kept him out of the first team until the following November, and then his 2001/02 campaign ended prematurely following an impressive start. He broke his leg in February 2002, in a match against Everton.

The arrival of Sol Campbell in 2001 provided a major obstacle and, in August 2002 Pascal Cygan's capture indicated to Upson that he was still going to struggle to get into the Arsenal line-up. He accepted a move to Reading on loan at the start of the 2002/03 season before moving to the Midlands in January.

Since his arrival at St.Andrews the central defender’s profile has been elevated considerably. He played in 14 games for Birmingham, collecting just 1 yellow and 1 red card along the way. His form was outstanding and many couldn’t believe Arsene Wenger’s decision to sell him for as little as £1 million. Among those surprised was Sven Goran Eriksson, who rewarded Upson’s fine performances with his first full internationall for England against South Africa in May.

Since then Upson played in every England game in Sol Campbell's absence, though once Campbell returned from injury Upson was once more on the sidelines.

This has led to some frustration on Upson's part. Despite making consistent appearances for the Blues in the previous two campaigns, he was only been able to make it into the England squad sporadically rather than find regular first-team international football.

This continued into the 2005/06 season, at the end of which Birmingham were relegated. Although he was an important part in their plans to gain promotion back into the top flight, Upson left City in January 2007, joining West Ham for a fee of £6million.

However, his first half-season with the Hammers was blighted by injury and he will hope to avoid such troubles in 07/08.