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New Wickham Contract Has Offer Clause
New Wickham Contract Has Offer Clause
Thursday, 17th Feb 2011 13:39

Town striker Connor Wickham’s new contract at Portman Road is reported to include a clause which would see him leave Portman Road if the Blues receive a bid of a specified size. Tottenham are said to have first refusal on the 17-year-old with Town owner and chairman Marcus Evans reported to have held talks with his Spurs counterparts regarding a potential future move.

Wickham, who is 18 at the end of March, signed a new deal last month which extended his Town contract until the summer of 2013. However, it is believed the new terms include a provision that if the Blues receive an offer at a set level — probably somewhere between £10 million and £15 million — the England U21 international can move on.

The Blues frontman watched Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Barcelona last night and the Gunners have also been chasing the Hereford-born player, along with Liverpool, Newcastle and a host of other Premier League clubs.

But Tottenham have long been believed to be the frontrunners for Wickham's signature with former Town coach Bryan Klug and Jim Magilton's one-time management consultant Charlie Woods both now working at White Hart Lane.

Speaking this morning, Town boss Paul Jewell reiterated that he would like to keep hold of Tuesday’s hat-trick scorer for as long as possible: “I get asked about Connor Wickham almost every day. Connor’s got huge potential and he’s got all the tools of the trade to be a top player, and hopefully that will be at Ipswich.”


Photo: Action Images



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Sindre94 added 13:46 - Feb 17
Oh no...
Nowadays any offer could be "normal", we saw that Carroll was bought for £35m, so a special bid for Wickham isnt that unlikely.
I hope we keep him.
COYB
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KembleBlue added 13:53 - Feb 17
hmm, hopefully the clause is large - dont see the point in putting it in unless its £20m odd at his age.. shame, but atleast we know whatever we'll get for him now and shouldnt have to accept pish take offers of £8m..

again, we seem to be on the poor end of deals, with Carrole worth £35, Bent £24..

i have faith in Wickham, even when a few people got on his back and believe he wants to be here.. proud to have him as a blue and hope he can be aslong as possible, but once he's learnt his trade (and he seems sensible with grounded people around him) i hope he takes on the world, and all the best to him..
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wellhungphil added 13:54 - Feb 17
I wanted £40 million for him, but with a get-out clause there's no way that the "minimum fee" will be exceeded. The bids will all be the same (i.e. the minimum) and clubs will compete based on what they are prepared to offer the player.

Which, when my evaluation is proved correct (tongue in cheek but bear with me), will be a package worth around 25-30 million based on Phil Ham's estimation in his article above. So we might as well start signing "good luck + thanks" cards now, sadly!
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PettaThat added 13:55 - Feb 17
I'd love him to stay. Who wouldn't? In reality, however, he's going to go and play for a Club which is competing at a higher level. The question is: what fee will ME get for him? I wouldn't be surprised if we are all disappointed?
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casanovacrow added 14:01 - Feb 17
The minimum fee means nothing if other clubs know spurs have 1st refusal surely. Other clubs know they have to outbid spurs which will keep pushing the price up
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brittaniaman added 14:11 - Feb 17
i thought something like this would come sooner rather than later. OH well I hope we can keep him for a while yet !!!!!!!
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bugblatter added 14:15 - Feb 17
"reported" to have a clause. Yeah, reported by the Daily Mail so it must be true. Pass the salt.
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ITFC_Essex added 14:18 - Feb 17
If he had a clause and requested it, he clearly is not commited to us anyway so sell. Chances are this is Daily Mail fantasy land rubbish again, I have lost count over the amount of times we have "sold" him according to that lot of useless lazy morons.
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Karlosfandangal added 14:21 - Feb 17
We will have him till the end of the season, would be nice to keep him for the following season as it look like we will be in with a real chance next year.

Could have been why we were after Austin, wounder who will be the new target
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chislehurstblue added 14:36 - Feb 17
Hold on. A few months back most of you were saying that you couldn't see what the fuss was about. Now you reckon he is worth £15+. Make up your minds!
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sudburyblue16 added 14:36 - Feb 17
Perhaps we'll sell him to Spurs during the Summer and they'll loan him back to us for a season? At 17 he's no doubt better off staying and playing regularly with Town than getting lost in a Spurs youth team. As for getting £10-£15 million for him, well that's just pure fantasy. It'll be more like £5M with a sell-on clause.
P.S. Great to see Austin setting the world on fire at Burnley!
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Garv added 14:44 - Feb 17
Even if we get an offer he still has to want to go! First team football for a promotion contesting team next season or reserves and bench for a premier league team?
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DiamondGezzer added 14:45 - Feb 17
I believe I heard that Bryan Klug is Conner Wickham's agent, so I suppose the Tottenham connection is obvious. Could the old pals act work to get him on the cheap, or could it turn into a dutch auction ? All we can do is sit and watch and hope he decides to stay for another year.
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Sir_Bob added 14:52 - Feb 17
Don't you all worry yourselves about the fee, it'll be "Undisclosed" anyway & we'll never know the truth
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PimsOclock added 14:52 - Feb 17
Funny how many people were happy to cash in for £10 m in January and after few good performances now claim he's worth £20m.

He's not worth £20m, Caroll is not worth £35m and Torres is not worth £50m. Tottenham will get a good deal on him at around £12m most of which is spent on the potential of the player and not the ability.
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floridaboy added 14:55 - Feb 17
Pretty certain that Paul Goddard is Wickhams agent. Dont really understand why people are getting upset about the story. There is no loyalty in football anymore, it is all about money and Wickham is not different.

At the end of the day I am sure a figure between £10m and £15m would trigger the clause - if it exists of course!!!!! After all he is still only 17 and still has an awful lot to learn in the game

The only way he would stay longer is if we got promoted this season and on current form - anything is possible!
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brogansnose added 14:59 - Feb 17
These types of clause are par for the course these days so thats no surprise. We have to accept that if he continues to develop at the rate he is then we havent got a prayer of holding on to him even if we get into the Premier as other clubs will be able to offer a bigger european stage, money and the recognition needed to get in the national team.

As for us ,hopefully, management have got things sorted so that he doesnt go for a stupidly low amount and that we have a sell on clause to further ITFC. Thank goodness its us that have got him because nobody else has got anyone like him and would love a player of his ability/potential and possible cash dividend. As for Connor he seems to be sensible enough to realise that his career won't best be served taking that big move early and playing in the reserves or going out on loan back to this league.

Let's enjoy it while we can, as whatever happens he will always be one of ours. Good luck to the ole boy, and to us.
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bedsitfc added 14:59 - Feb 17
Cm-s from posh, would love to see him here, scores and works his ass off for the team, but we would need to get someone in before wickham is sold because if clubs knew we got say 15 million in for him they would want to push the price up on anybody we would be interested in.
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tractorboy2434 added 15:14 - Feb 17
There is no way Posh would release CMS whilst they remain in contention for promotion or a play off place, he will leave Posh in the summer if they don't go up but will cost 2m plus as a minimum, there is no way will we get him on loan.
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blue_em_away added 15:22 - Feb 17
chislehurstblue

Your comment is not true. Only a few said whats the fuss about. Most on here reconise his potential.

PimsOclock

Your talking toshh geezer. If your house next door sold for 500k but in your opinion it was not worth it, would you sell yours for 250k. NO, I think not.
Something is worth what someone is willing to pay.

I think CW could, in the future, be the most expensive british footballer. That worth needs to be realised now. Min £15m, summer possible £20m. When he's 25 it will be £50-60m to Barcelona.
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DiamondGezzer added 15:42 - Feb 17
Maybe all this, so and so is interested in him, then so and so is interested in him, is all part of starting the dutch auction I was refering to. Just about all the top premiership clubs have at one time been noted as the potential buyers of him, one way of keeping them all sweet I suppose.
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Portman51 added 15:45 - Feb 17
When he goes, probably sooner rather than later, the biggest disappointment for me will be losing yet another player without first seeing him realise his full potential in an Ipswich shirt.

In a sense the only person who should be concerned about the fee is Evans. He's already into the club for tens of millions which he'll only ever see back if we get into the Prem and manage to stay here for a few years. It's up to him (and PJ) to judge whether that objective is more likely to be met with CW in the squad, or by letting him go and reinvesting the cash as with Keiron Dyer in 1999.

I'm assuming of course that any fee doesn't go straight into ME's bank account and heads out the door with him.....
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I_8_NARWICH added 15:56 - Feb 17
15 million i would take, i know hes a good player and has a lot of potential but next season we could buy 5 decent players with that amount of money and could really add to the squad and really put in a push for promotion. Put a big sell on clause on him and i would be happy.
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tractorblue99 added 16:13 - Feb 17
It would be disapointing if he left but for 10-15 million we could buy two more good strikers. I've seen a lot of comments in the past about mackail smith and le fondre, one proven striker and one up and coming young talent.
But bearing in mind that this is the daily mail reporting so i'm not to worried.
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DiamondGezzer added 16:33 - Feb 17
Portman51. As I understand it, Marcus Evans lost 14 million in running costs last year at Portman Road - Football club ownership, hardly a get rich quick investmant !
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