Reid all about it

With barely 24 hours left until the transfer window closes, Sky Sports are reporting that Sunderland have upped their bid for Andy Reid to £4million.

The general consensus on the Charlton message boards appears to be firmly against accepting, but I must confess I don't understand their sentiments.

I very much enjoy watching Reidy when the opposition is giving him time to express his obvious talents. He's obviously a decent chap, and it was notable moreover that Martin Jol of all people spoke in last weekend's Sunday Times about his important contribution to team spirit whilst at Spurs.

Unfortunately, it seems Championship teams swiftly cottoned onto the fact that Reid was our talisman, and by snuffing him out, we didn't have a very obvious Plan B. Indeed, when Pards pushed Ambrose into the 'hole' that Reid had been occupying at home to Ipswich, he popped up with two quality goals.

Firstly Reidy is injured and thus of absolutely no use to us presently whatsoever (and moreover has been injury-prone ever since he joined). Indeed, at the age of 25, I am willing to suppose that his 'weight issues' are both unlikely to ever be completely solved, and are likely at least partly correlated to his above injury-proneness. Charlton simply can no longer afford to have expensive players who are also regularly injured (Cory Gibbs? - Ed.).

Second, having captained the side for most of the first half of the season, and with the team clearly being built around him (via the 4-5-1 formation), he generally flattered to deceive, largely due to his lack of mobility, which made him unable to produce the goods either as an outright winger or half of a central midfield duo. As fine a passer of the ball that he is, the whole team was obliged to slow down to his pace.

In short, if he was available for selection on Saturday for example, he would simply not walk back into the side, if only because Andy Gray's arrival makes a 4-4-2 the obvious choice now. Indeed, with Jerome Thomas already on the bench, it's not clear Pards would even find a place in the 16 for him given the importance of Jose Semedo there.

Third, he was signed for £3m in mid-2006 in a transaction between two Premiership sides, yet it appears that Sunderland are willing to claim his value has increased by £1m, despite Charlton's relegation and ongoing injury issues! I would imagine from Charlton's perspective that recruiting Gray, losing Reid, but pocketing a net £2.5m or so would be pretty good January business, not least given our promising current line-up and the former's immediate availability. Unfortunately the reality of relegation implies we must consider all reasonable offers for any of our players.

A comparison was made with Kenwyne Jones whom Roy Keane signed from fellow Championship side Southampton for fully £6million, yet he remained somewhat 'unproven.' However that is precisely the point; Reid is highly unlikely to improve much as a player going forward because of his obvious physical limitations. Jones meanwhile was indeed 'unproven', but with tons of potential, with scope to be the next Didier Drogba. Indeed Keane implied recently that he already was. As any financial trader will tell you, you have to pay up for such options.

Fourth, speaking of Andy Gray, assuming that Sunderland are offering Reidy higher wages, it would be a bit rich (no pun intended) for us to complain about such a strategy given we employed the exact same one to procure the other Andy.

If we remain in the Championship next season, Reid will likely move on anyhow (potentially for less, and probably to one of the promoted sides), whilst if we gain promotion ourselves, he is not necessarily good enough there (he had little impact last time around). He has become something of a (very) round peg in a team full of square holes, and we should be realistic enough to accept the rumoured offer.