Connor Wickham (Ipswich Town)

Don't you just hate Steve Bruce...?

Ok, lets not be bothered. Do a Leeds for all I care!

If spending 8m on wickham is doing a leeds then we must already be broke and we may forget about champs lge next year

Supposedly he is having a medical tomorrow.  Will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.  If we don't move for him, then I'll be inclined to believe that no one outside the club has a F***ing clue who our transfer targets are.  As previously mentioned, no one was talking about Hendo until a few days before it was done and dusted.  So, you have to feel like maybe if Adam, Downing, Wickham, etc were our preferred targets, they would already be Liverpool players by now....

If we structure a deal the same way and pay, say, £5m now, £5m if he scores 20 goals in the next three years and another £5m if he makes 100 appearances for Liverpool, we've got a bargain.  You're not paying £15m for a kid with potential, you are paying £15m for a great player.

One of the wisest analysis' in this thread.  

There are many ways of structuring a deal.  Who could complain at the above?

Ipswich striker Connor Wickham close to Sunderland move

Page last updated at 19:06 GMT, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 20:06 UK
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Wickham scores thrilling goal for Ipswich
Ipswich have accepted a bid of £9m from Sunderland for striker Connor Wickham, BBC Sport understands.

Wickham, 18, could be a Sunderland player in 24 hours, subject to agreeing personal terms and passing a medical.

The deal for the England Under-21 international, who made his Ipswich debut aged 16, could eventually be worth £12.5m with add-ons.

He has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Tottenham and Liverpool.

His future has been in doubt despite the fact that he extended his contract with Ipswich until 2014 in April.

Wickham was in the England squad for the European Under-21 Championship
Wickham was part of England squad for the European Under-21 Championship, although he did not play a match.

Since joining Ipswich as a trainee in July 2008 he has made 33 starts and 32 substitute appearances in the Championship, scoring 13 times.

In May 2010 Wickham helped England to victory in the European Under-17 Championship, scoring the winning goal as they beat Spain 2-1 in the final.

Ipswich manager Paul Jewell said last week that he expected a lot of interest in Wickham over the summer but that the club were under no pressure to sell.

Jewell said: "We don't want to sell Connor Wickham, but if he wants to leave and the right offer comes in then we'll have to consider it.

"But until then - Connor's never given me any indication he wants to leave - our backs aren't against the wall, we're in control of the situation."

It was thought Liverpool were the favourites to sign Wickham and they have made inquiries, but have so far failed to make a big enough offer.

Sunderland's fresh bid, however, is believed to be sufficient for the Championship club to let him leave and he could be heading to Wearside for talks.

Ipswich announced the signing of former West Bromwich Albion and Watford striker Nathan Ellington last week. They have also bought Michael Chopra from Cardiff City.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13873800.stm

Be annoying if Sunderland do get him, means we can't shift N'gog over there... 

Be annoying if Sunderland do get him, means we can't shift N'gog over there... 

I'm actually more annoyed about this than being pipped for Wickham TBH.

Definitely looking less £13M now and closer to the original £8M.

If you've got two legs as a young English international player then you are worth £5M.  I'm really surprised that we don't want to play the game at £9M.

Maybe we really are looking down the back of the couch for spare pennies.

<worried face>

and he'll probably score against us when we kick off the season that would be a piss take

This is reminding me of A.young  before he signed for Villa, we were tipped to sign him from watford ,than aston villa signed him for 8/9M , in 2007(on the other hand 2007 was another  and different  ownership situation)
  YNWA

This is reminding me of A.young  before he signed for Villa, we were tipped to sign him from watford ,than aston villa signed him for 8/9M , in 2007(on the other hand 2007 was another  and different  ownership situation)
  YNWA

Yeah, I just hope this doesn't become a trend.  We were (supposedly) in for Young and Jones already this window, and lost out to United.  We are (supposedly) in for Wickham, but look likely to lose out to Sunderland. 

Maybe the supposed ITK's have it all wrong.  Maybe they haven't a F***ing clue who we are REALLY after and we will get all of our main targets, but it is a bit worrying seeing/hearing that we are losing out on so many of our (supposed) transfer targets....

Just found some money behind the couch. Get me Henry on the phone quick

If spending 8m on wickham is doing a leeds then we must already be broke and we may forget about champs lge next year

Read the thread. I was not saying that at all. He was claiming that we shouldn't comment on our finances.

Anyway, back on topic. We should definitely sign this lad. We will regret it if we do not.

I don't think money to spend is a problem Reina has come out again today and declared his future to Liverpool and he got assurances from Commolli about investment.

I think our problem may lie in getting players off the wage bill, apart from Meireles and N'Gog there has been no consistent link to any of our players interesting teams.

Cant believe we let this one go, i really had my heart set on this signing. Its our loss and sunderland's gain imo. But maybe we have someone of a higher standard in the bag. 

To be honest I like the way we haven't been forced into going higher than we wanted.

To be honest I like the way we haven't been forced into going higher than we wanted.

Me too, we're not mugs and we shouldn't be treated as such.

Definitely looking less £13M now and closer to the original £8M.

If you've got two legs as a young English international player then you are worth £5M.  I'm really surprised that we don't want to play the game at £9M.

Maybe we really are looking down the back of the couch for spare pennies.

<worried face>

Or alternatively, we might have a better option for the 4th striker spot, at a similar price ... 

As said above, I prefer this approach in contrast to being squeezed out of every single penny possible for English players by clubs.. If it means we miss out on Wickham, so be it. With the amount of scouts and contacts DC/Kenny have, surely they will be able to scan the globe for a player of similar ability but without the excess baggage of English player tax.

Sick of being taken for a ride by every club who we do business with, particularly English clubs.

Wickham to have Sunderland medical 'within 24 hours' after £13m bid accepted by Ipswich

By Colin Young
Last updated at 9:41 PM on 28th June 2011

Connor Wickham was in Sunderland on Tuesday night to complete his £13million move from Ipswich.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has seen off competition from  Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham to put together a package which will land the England Under 21 striker today. Wickham was having a medical last night and concluding talks over personal terms.

Ipswich have accepted a down payment of £8.1million, which will rise by another £5m dependent on goals, appearances, European qualification and future England appearances. Only Liverpool are believed to have made a bid for Wickham since the end of last  season but their offer was £2m lower.

Wickham, who became Ipswich’s youngest-ever player at 16 years and 11 days when he came on as a substitute against Doncaster in April 2009, scored the winning goal in England’s Under 17s European Championship final win against Spain last summer.

The 6ft 3in teenager fell out of favour during Roy Keane’s tenure at Portman Road, but Paul Jewell brought him back into the side when he took over in January and the striker repaid him with nine goals.

Bruce is also hoping to seal a £5m deal for  Birmingham City’s Craig Gardner. The midfielder, expected on  Wearside for a medical and talks today, is set to be Bruce’s fifth signing since Jordan Henderson was sold to Liverpool.

The Sunderland manager, armed with cash from the Henderson and Darren Bent deals, has also added Sweden international Seb Larsson and Republic of Ireland keeper Keiren Westwood on free transfers. He is waiting for a work permit to enable South Korea teenage striker Ji Dong-won to complete his £2m move from Chunnam Dragons.

Bruce is still interested in making Manchester United trio Darron Gibson, Wes Brown and John O’Shea part of his squad, along with Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia and Liverpool striker David Ngog.

But it is the landing of Wickham ahead of three clubs from the top six which will delight Bruce.

The promise of regular first team football has given Sunderland the edge over their rivals, as well as their ability to match Ipswich’s  asking price.

Wickham first caught the eye of the top clubs three seasons ago and former Sunderland and Ipswich Jewell was resigned to losing the teenager after Ipswich’s failure to win promotion last season.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2009203/Connor-Wickham-Sunderland-medical-24-hours.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13873800.stm

Ipswich have accepted a bid of £9m from Sunderland for striker Connor Wickham, BBC Sport understands.

Wickham, 18, could be a Sunderland player in 24 hours, subject to agreeing personal terms and passing a medical.

The deal for the England Under-21 international, who made his Ipswich debut aged 16, could eventually be worth £12.5m with add-ons.

He has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Tottenham and Liverpool.

His future has been in doubt despite the fact that he extended his contract with Ipswich until 2014 in April.

Wickham was included in the England squad for the European Under-21 Championship but he did not make an appearance.

Since joining Ipswich as a trainee in July 2008 he has made 37 first-team starts and come off the bench 35 times, scoring a total of 15 goals.

In May 2010 Wickham helped England to victory in the European Under-17 Championship, scoring the winning goal as they beat Spain 2-1 in the final.

Ipswich manager Paul Jewell said last week that he expected a lot of interest in Wickham over the summer but that the club were under no pressure to sell.

Jewell said: "We don't want to sell Connor Wickham, but if he wants to leave and the right offer comes in then we'll have to consider it.

"But until then - Connor's never given me any indication he wants to leave - our backs aren't against the wall, we're in control of the situation."

It was thought Liverpool were favourites to sign Wickham but it appears they failed to make a big enough offer.

Sunderland's fresh bid, however, is believed to be sufficient for the Championship club to let him leave.

And it seems Ipswich were prepared for Wickham's departure, having announced the signing of former West Brom and Watford striker Nathan Ellington last week. They have also bought Michael Chopra from Cardiff City.

I'm beginning to think that this is going to be a fairly quiet window for us (although its early days). What is most disturbing is that there is a long list of players we need to ship out who seem to arouse absolutely no interest whatsoever from other teams. Like many of you out there who care about THE great club I've been monitoring various media links, and our players names do not appear as targets, except for Raul and Ngog.  I think until we shift some of the deadwood and reduce the wage bill, it may be that FSG will not pursue new players like Wickham.

I think FSG are businessmen to the core, and on sober reflection perhaps thats exactly what we need - to improve the squad sufficiently to get a return to the top 4 - (I don't think we are so far away and if the season finished in July instead of May things may have finished differently) and shift the deadwood to streamline the business.  There is a lot going on in the far east at the moment to improve the club's commercial position so that we benefit from an upswing in results and league position.  It may also be that FSG realise that they have made a strategic error in spending so much on Carroll - overpaying sends the wrong message to the marketplace. On the subject of this thread, I confidently predict that Wickham will play no more than 2 seasons for Sunderland before heading off to Man United.

I'm beginning to think that this is going to be a fairly quiet window for us (although its early days). What is most disturbing is that there is a long list of players we need to ship out who seem to arouse absolutely no interest whatsoever from other teams. Like many of you out there who care about THE great club I've been monitoring various media links, and our players names do not appear as targets, except for Raul and Ngog.  I think until we shift some of the deadwood and reduce the wage bill, it may be that FSG will not pursue new players like Wickham.

I think FSG are businessmen to the core, and on sober reflection perhaps thats exactly what we need - to improve the squad sufficiently to get a return to the top 4 - (I don't think we are so far away and if the season finished in July instead of May things may have finished differently) and shift the deadwood to streamline the business.  There is a lot going on in the far east at the moment to improve the club's commercial position so that we benefit from an upswing in results and league position.  It may also be that FSG realise that they have made a strategic error in spending so much on Carroll - overpaying sends the wrong message to the marketplace. On the subject of this thread, I confidently predict that Wickham will play no more than 2 seasons for Sunderland before heading off to Man United.

Please note: It is June 28th/29th (depending on where you live). It is not early August. So many important names are on holidays, (like Dalglish) are weighing up potential options (managers/owners/players/agents are all deciding what is best for the future), or are trying to get their mind off the football for just a bloody second. Notice that not much business is being done ANYWHERE? It is just paper talk, mate. I wouldn't look into our "targets" that much. I do agree, however, that shifting out the deadwood will be just as big of a priority as bringing in good talent. We just can't expect all the deadwood to leave at once!