We need Connor to playing regularly alongside Scotland and give them both the service they need on the floor and from wide positions ,when played together against Cardiff we looked a force .Then he has a dodgy spell in a game and is taken off after 20 mins great confidence booster for a youngster .Stick with Roy and lets see you bring out the obvious potential

He wont go to Liverpool, he wants Premiership football not Championship football next season........

Liam Trotter? To a Premiership Club? Are you 'avin larf?!

Always thought Trotter had great potential, won't surprise me at all if he plays premiership football at some point in his career.

We should be offering Wickham a contract extension to protect our interests. It's inevitable that we will lose him eventually, but it would be better for both him & ITFC if he stays for another couple of years. Interesting about Jeffers though. remember the uproar from everyone when we failed to sign him? That was nearly an expensive mistake!

Annoying the scouts came when he had a good match. Looked lively when he came on.

i would probably swap wickham for bale and defoe and nothing else.

Cant see Wickham really playing much of a part with Ipswich. Have a feeling is a club assest. and when the right bid comes in he wil be sold and the money used on 3 or four players.
Could even see a Livermjore and Townsend plus cash deal or we go out and pay 4 or 5 million for a Chopra or Beckford to sweeten the blow.
Hope I am wrong, having said that have we built him up too much as we all said Prem football with Wickham getting 20 to 25 goals this season.
So far not delivered but are we expecting too much from a 17 year still learning his trade?

Surprised about Trotter!

As for Wickham - is he still worth 8M? there is certainly an argument to cash in.

If it's for silly money we should take it, hes not exactly set the league on fire this season, dosn't really fit with the team and we don't want to end up with another Bowditch on the books for years, and never coming good.

Team for Sat?...

MURPHY
PETERS / McAULEY / SMITH / O'CONNOR
EDWARDS / NORRIS / LEADBITTER / COLBACK
SCOTLAND / WICKHAM

SUBS FROM: PRISKIN, TOWNSEND, LIVERMORE, DELANEY, LEE-BARRETT, MURRAY, EASTMAN, HYAM, CIVELLI

The trotter bit is surpising to me as well as i never really rated him to be honest with you.

About the wickham thing it is tricky because do you cash in and make the sqaud better which would be great or do you keep him and hope he show's the potiental that has been said and been showed in parts during his career a tough one to call to be honest with you.

Agree with Bluearmy

But even if he set the Championship on fire and we get in the Prem and he set that on fire, if the Liverpool's Tottenham's etc came in for him, we could never match the wages that they can offer. (Belamey 85k, Rooney 90k Murphy 26k even Stead was too much at 12k)
Ipswich are a small club we are nver going to get 40 -50k gates and even with ME's money and Prem money we will never be able to compeate with Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal's of this world
The owners of Chelsea nad Man City could buy Ipswich out 10 times and still have enough Money for a cup of tea.

Glen are you joking?
Team

Fulop (he will be back)
Peters Mac Smith Connor
Edwards Norris Colback Townsend
Scotland Wickham,!

Sell Wickham for 8m with a sell on clause as well as a cheap buy back clause if it doesn't work out. Give Keano his 3m payoff and appoint someone who can get us promoted. Simple !!!

To muhrensleftfoot,

The FA and FIFA rules state that 17 year old players first contract can be no longer than 2 Years in length, therefore we can't offer a contract extension to Wickham

ME will want a return on his investment shortly. He has his foot in the door of the Olympics gravy train with the help of Clegg, so that will bring him some income. But as far as ITFC is concerned there's not much to show. So, does he sell CW or not? Come 2012 CW won't have a shelf price at all and could walk out of the door. CW and ITFC wouldn't want that - CW would be powerless to demand good personal terms with another club, and ITFC would be giving away an asset. If ITFC come to the conclusion that they can push for promotion without CW they'd be stupid not to sell him. They'll sell him.

Team:

Fulop
Peters Macca Smith Colbeck
ewards Norris Livermore Townsend
Scotland Wickham,

Might as well use Conner while we still have him.

Can't see Liverpool making much of a bid to be honest as i tink there fans are after a big name to solve there issues so 5-6m tops i'm thinking.

More realistic would be Tottenham, players plus cash. the two we have already and kean would be good and maybe 3 million, would snap there hands off

@ O2BITFC - were did u get that info from on contracts ? I have looked at the FA UEFA rules and it does not say a 17 year old can not sign more than 2 years. If a player is playing first team football he can be offered what ever the club wants!

At Prem clubs some of the youth players have 4 year contracts and it is no different in the CCC. Wickham's 2 year contract was a smart move by the people looking after him and nothing else.

Ipswich (ME and Clegg) need to extend his contract NOW if we r to get decent money for him! Or if we want to keep him at ITFC !!!!!

Only the usual mugs thought trotter was poor

Agree we should be looking to keep Connor at all costs.

Dissapointing he hasn't had more game time through injury, internationals & our formation which see's Scotland get the nod. For his age he is an immense talent and am worried if he doesn't have more gametime he might get tempted by the big boys.

Agree with Surco, when he played alongside Scotland against Cardiff he was the stand out player for me and was unlucky not to have a couple of goals but for David Marshall - great strength, football brain and power.

A good run in the side and I'm sure he'll start knocking them in like the tail end of last year. Think thats our striking problem at the minute, only Jason is getting a decent run because of the 4-1-4-1. Priskin was scoring and looking much better until Scotland signed & has been left out from the start for a while (Milwall aside) and not great at Watford from what I have heard!

Tough game but hoping for something at Forest - COYB

If its true then i am pleased for Trotter.
As for the Liverpool scouting story, " So What " there are probably a number of scouts every week monitoring Wickhams progress.

Oh and good luck to Trotter but can't see any truth in that whatsoever!!!

Lets face it,

It's not a question of if we keep him its "when do we sell and how much can we get for him"
thats what ME is probably thinking, If and thats a big if some premier league club offers 8m+ for a unproven 17 year old who is only playing 20-30 minutes a week then he obviously has talent and they can clearly see it as i think our manager can although, and this is my thoughts

Mr Evans has obviously said something to RK and told him not to use the lad to much so as not to get him injured so all you "fans" who keep blaming Roy for not playing him should look at the bigger picture, ME thoughts are clearly looking at the January transfer window and if he can keep his prized player fit and still playing the odd half hour of football then he will gt the best price for him then, i honestly think that RK's hands are tied in this case.
As for players coming into the club, Roy has clearly on a number of occassions stated that the club need to buy but then again he's coem out with we have a good depth to the squad. ME again pulling the strings and again the manager is helpless as no money means no new players.

I think that RK has done a good job with what he has had, thats not sucking up to the manager as like most of the fickle so called fans on here who like to moan at all the bad results but bask in the glory of a win would do, it's just looking beyond the saturday or midweek game and relising that we as fans shouldn't just look at the easy target that is RK but maybe it could be the person that no one has seen at a home game, Said at the beginning that there would be a good lot of money to buy new players and also that he is a club man....So where is the money? Yes he did give us some to start will but when the team has actually started well, where is the money to kick on in the league? where is he? he doesn't care if people are slagging the manager off for all we know he could be the bloke in the pub who is taking it all in and not really caring. surely a owner if interested in a club would want the fans to see him and be a spear head for the club but no he's happy to just sit and let someone else take the can for it.

Surely as fans we should be demanding more from our owner when were near the top of the league? Put in that extra money to push us on. i hate to compare to other clubs but just look at the clubs who are doing well this year. QPR, Leeds, Norwich, all clubs who have spent alot of money but obviously reeping the benifits for it.

So all the idiots who say sell Conner and buy out RK contract and get a better manager in should sit back and look a bit harder at the actual owner and then see if we did have a new manager in if indeed they would get the money to get new players in.....i don't think so.

Lets be happy with what we've got as 5 weeks ago we were all saying that RK was a great manager and got alot going for him....2 or 3 defeats doesn't change that so lets all grow a back bone and support the team and roy through a difficult spell which every club will have this year let me add...


COYB

Comeonthegoodtimes ... a couple points there is no way Evans would have told Keane who to play without upsetting Roy that is why he walked out of Sunderland . You really think he told Roy to play him for 20 mins then take him off ,get real .
And as for the owner backing the club we have spent more on players than QPR,Leeds and Norwich over the last two seasons and on bigger signings what £3.5 million players have the others signed ? Keano has spent £10 million on attacking players and we score less than when he took over.Two of these Martin and Priskin for a combined £3.5 million who have played a handful of games ! No wonder Evans may be a little reluctant to throw more money at more signings when Keane and his signings have hardly proved themselves with the majority of our man of the matches this season being Jims signings or youth players .
Perhaps Evans wants Keane to prove he can get the best out of his players without just spending like Boothroyd,Lambert,Warnock at Palace,Holloway ,money is certainly not always the answer like us last season and Boro this