By greater potential I mean I reckon Moyes could find a player, for the £4-5m that we'd probably get, that would go on to be a better player for us than Heitinga. I'm not half as sure as you that our finances are in order and I wouldn't want us risking losing that type of money.
You seem certain that Distin is as good as finished. I'm not sure why? He's looked after himself well, has had relatively few injuries and it's not that uncommon for CB's to play on till late 30's. Plus Duffy is rapidly approaching a point where he needs to get some games. Adding another promising player to that group would be more than enough depth.
In terms of adding players we're only a CM and back up striker off being exactly where we should be.
It's not about him being as good as finished, more that one more injury and his career could be over. Once his legs have gone he loses a lot of his game. We can't afford for that to happen mid way through a season and then not have adequate cover. We need to be looking for a replacement for him soon if we want to have the depth to compete in Europe.
If we sell Heitinga we will have:
Duffy
Distin
Jagielka
as our centre backs. If we get into Europe we'd be looking at 45+ games in a season, that is not good enough. Moyes bought Heitinga and Distin for £5m apiece, but that was two years ago. Prices are always going up, and by the time we've sold Heitinga for lets say £5m we'd only see a portion of that re-invested because of agent fees and signing on fees for any prospective new centre half.
You said it's not that uncommon for CBs to play into their late 30s, i'd have to disagree. Could you name ten PL centre halves in the last five years or so who have played past the age of 35/36 and not looked gash ?
I just don't see how Moyes is going to get a player who is as good as Heitinga is right now for the same price, and we certainly can't afford to be selling one of our three proven centre backs for £5m on a punt that Moyes will get a replacement with the potential to be as good. Potential isn't useful if we're playing 2 games a week for most of the season.
You have to start questioning the sanity of selling Heitinga who is 28 and proved in the latter half of last season that he can be fantastic for us and replacing him with a player who has potential but could be gash. It doesn't make sense to me, and that's without even adding to the squad ! (One in one out)
It's a different story when you have a player like Rodwell who you can sell and then bring three players in because Rodwell wasn't making much of a contribution to our team anyway. Heitinga definitely is and will over the coming years.
Also, i think some haven't realised how important it could be to have a continental style centre half like Heitinga if we were to get into Europe and be facing teams like Udiense and Fiorentina. I'd have him over Hoofmaster general for sure.