Will selling star striker hurt Southend's chances of staying up?

Southend chairman Ron Martin is coming under increasing pressure not to sell the relegation-threatened side's want-away leading scorer.

A number of bigger clubs are thought to be sniffing around the 24 year old Essex based forward whose goals have made him one of the hottest properties in the January window. With the striker making his desire to move on from his local team known and with his valuation being only likely to drop before the summer chairman Ron Martin must be sorely tempted to sell high.

However whilst many fans concede that their top asset's value has never been higher, supporters argue that selling during the January window would condemn the club to relegation. Fans claim the highly sought-after hot-shot's goals will fire the Blues to safety and that those goals will be worth more than any transfer fee received.

Those protestations are likely to be all the louder if Southend were to cash in and that striker was to finally get off the mark for his new club in his sixth appearance.

Freddy Eastwood is currently Southend's leading goalscorer with 13 goals.


From our January 2007 archive.  

Freddy Eastwood was not sold that transfer window, but he only managed a further three goals that season and Southend were relegated. Whilst Eastwood was sold that summer, it was for less than he was being valued at during January and the Essex side proceeded to struggle financially.