Avram Grant revealed last month that the Upson had been offered an extension to his current deal, which is due to expire at the end of the season. However, the 31-year-old is unlikely to put pen to paper on his new deal until West Ham's Premier League status is secure. Losing Upson would be a big blow to the Londoners, who have built their defence around the centre-half since he arrived from Birmingham in a £6million deal in January 2007. But Gold is not worried about the England defender's future. "I don't think there is any rush for Matthew to sign his new deal," he said. "He is now into the last year of his contract and doing it now or at the end of the season doesn't really matter to either side. "Matthew is always welcome to come to me and talk about it. "The fact that we're bottom of the league makes it a bit difficult but it's no rush for neither him nor us." Despite clearing some of the debts inherited from their Icelandic predecessors, Gold and fellow co-owner David Sullivan have still only been able to offer Grant limited transfer funds since the Israeli's appointment. Selling a prized asset such as Upson could raise the Upton Park club up to £2million but Gold has hinted he will not cash in on the player even if he indicated he wanted to leave at the end of the current campaign on a free. "Our stance is that we do not sell our best players," Gold added. "That's what we said when we joined the football club. "For the last 40 years West Ham have been famous for selling their best players. You only have to look at the last England squad - a third of that squad has come through West Ham - Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson... All these players have come from West Ham. Imagine, if they were still here, what a great side we would be. "We are trying desperately to reverse that policy. Can we achieve it 100%? Of course not, but what we can do is do our most to change that philosophy. "We don't want to sell our players. We want to build a team that is a force to be reckoned with."
