Matt Upson has labelled the last few days of the January transfer window as crunch time for the rest of Albion’s season.

The former England centre-half expects the club’s dealings by Friday’s 11pm deadline to define the Seagulls’ chances of staying in the Championship promotion shake-up.

Unconfirmed reports in the North-East yesterday claimed Middlesbrough’s 25-year-old winger Muzzy Carayol has become the latest setback for Albion in their January transfer business.

Boro are thought to have rejected the Seagulls’ bid for their free-scoring Gambian wide man, who had a loan spell at Crawley earlier in his career.

Bournemouth’s top scorer Lewis Grabban decided to stay put and Albion also lost out to Millwall in attempting to sign versatile Irishman Shaun Williams from MK Dons.

Upson told The Argus: “I think the next few days are big for the club in terms of the destination we are going to end up in this season, really big.

“What ever their dealings are, who ever they are bringing in or not bringing in, it’s going to be interesting come the first of February to see what we have got to work with for the rest of the season.

“It is going to have a big bearing on where we are going to be able to finish in the League.”

Albion, currently eighth, are at third-placed Burnley tonight with a chance to climb back into the top six.

Upson said: “I think we are more than capable of finishing in the play-offs. It’s very tight with quite a lot of teams on similar points and in similar runs of form.

“But I look at some of the teams around us who we have played this season and I feel we are more than capable of finishing higher than them.”