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

itfc1981 added 16:35 - Feb 17 Well done Clegg, what a fool
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hamster153 added 16:40 - Feb 17 As soon as any English talent comes along its sold for 10/15 million and put on 30k a week. People wonder why England cant win world cups. Its because any talent is bought before the lad has time to forfill it potential!
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clive_baker added 16:44 - Feb 17 Doesn't work like that though does it casanovacrow. If there is a minimum fee release clause in his contract, there wont be a bidding war as we have to accept the offer. Say it's at £10 million and Tottenham bid that, then Chelsea are not going to bid £12 million when they know a) £10 million would be accepted and b) Tottenhams offer of £10 million couldn't be rejected if they did. I suspect we will get 3 or 4 offers all at the level in his contract (say £10 million) and it'll all come down to where Wickham wants to go. This takes the element of negotiation out of our hands (probably a good thing if Clegg is involved). If it was the only way of getting him to sign though, it was well worth it as otherwise with a year left on his contract and 6 months til he can talk to other clubs, we would be accepting £4 million offers this summer.

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Ipswich24 added 16:45 - Feb 17 The best thing for all concerned is to come out and tell the fans if this is true its our club and we should have the right to know these things. Get Wickham to sign another deal and dont let him go for any less than £20 million. If we do get that we should have him loaned back to us plus a very good sell on fee and Goal, appearances and England caps. CW is a one off so lets not regret anything with him.

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are_these_the_days added 16:45 - Feb 17 I'm with Portman51 on this one.Why set a price on a player who's potential has nowhere near been realised? Connors all round game is better than Carroll.Even accepting that the latter was vastly overpriced, if Connor has to be sold lets hold on to him for as long as possible.
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Portman51 added 16:59 - Feb 17 DiamondGezzer As I understand the takeover deal, ME could conceivably end up making money, but only on the back of a reasonable stay in the Prem. He apparently bought a £30m+ debt for about a quarter of that but, as you say, the operating losses on his first two years have been substantial. He could sell the club, but who in the current climate would want to buy a Championship outfit, and at what price? Hence my comment that the way he handles our only significant asset on the playing staff is a critical issue for him financially.

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whoppit added 17:09 - Feb 17 Everybody knows the day will come when Connor moves to a big club, it's not if but when. I just hope that the deal that Ipswich get is for mega cash and a possible season long loan back at Town. Personally, I think Connor is only worth 5m but if Carroll is worth 35m then I am not sure anymore !!!!!
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chislehurstblue added 17:15 - Feb 17 He is worth more than £5m just on potential.
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whoppit added 17:24 - Feb 17 Yeah but transfer fees are so inflated now. Potential can go both ways but I think Connor will realise his more under fat Paul than he would Keano.
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strikalite added 17:39 - Feb 17 Why are Spurs the 'frontrunners' to sign him?? This is about getting the best deal for ITFC surely? We don't need to sell and he's under contract...the STARTING price for me is a fair £15m because we are in a strong position...let the big boys fight it out for his signature if they want him so badly!!!
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TractorRoyNo1 added 18:23 - Feb 17 don't panic, he will want to join a big club, not a spurs, everton, villa or newcastel size - i still think he will sit tight and leave for nowt at the end of his contract
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jas0999 added 18:23 - Feb 17 Sensible by Wickham. Don't blame him one little bit. Bottom line is Wickham will leave ITFC. This is not Jewell's, Keane's, the fans, Cleggs or anyone elses fault. If a big club comes in for him, then we shouldn't stand in his way. The problem is; will we get a decent deal for him? Now this is where I worry - with Clegg at the helm we will probably have agreed to let him leave for £5M! I hope we have had the sense to put at least £10M as a release fee - but with ITFC and Clegg, I'm not confident.

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Mark added 18:37 - Feb 17 We don't know whether this is true. It would make sense from Wickham's point of view to have a release clause value and Town could be forced to agree to it in order that he didn't enter the last year of his contract. However, why would we give Tottenham first refusal? Unless they paid us a fee for this right perhaps? There is one big plus: if Paul Jewell is given a large cut of any Wickham fee I am confident he can spend it well in the transfer market and turn us into a promotion side.

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brittaniaman added 20:39 - Feb 17 Hanson was right the other night he said Torres was worth 25mil. and Carroll 10mil.that is more prospective. BUT with Abramovich with a 11billion PLUS FORTUNE he can spend 50mil from out of his petty cash, unfortunately that is one of the things ruining football
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Keaneish added 21:54 - Feb 17 He's off at some point prematurely as happens to all class town players. Unfortunately he'll probably bomb out for that reason as all class town players have over the years against better advice. Here's hoping his old man's got his head screwed on and he stays for the next couple of season's. If not, lets hope that clause is mega bucks....
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slowerball added 23:23 - Feb 17 Oh yes, we had this with ex-Tranmere player George who played centre half for us.... It was a Santos clause. I think you.
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mugsykets added 12:31 - Feb 18 Please, please, please not the Yids!
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RRanger added 15:40 - Feb 18 My gut feeling is that we will get at least 1 more season out of Connor as he strikes me as someone who wants to play REGULAR 1st team football and none of the top clubs are going to give him that yet. The ideal scenario would be for Connor to be part of a promotion winning Ipswich, and then for him to help to keep us in the Prem. He would then probably double in value and would go to one of the big boys (my bet would be Arsenal). COYB

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