Chief executive Simon Clegg has revealed that Connor Wickham has a pre-contract agreement with the Blues. The 16-year-old can’t sign a professional deal with Town until his 17th birthday on March 31st and is a reported target of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa and other Premier League clubs.
Clegg told TWTD that he has held talks with the England U17 international, his agent and his father and that he has been encouraged by those meetings: "I think that Connor recognises that he has a good future at this club: he’s still only 16 years old, he’s playing first team football and perhaps it’s better to be a large fish in a slightly smaller pond rather than a small fish in a huge pond.
"He’s still learning his trade, he’s a gifted individual with huge potential and the issue is how he and his advisors see that potential being fully exploited.
"But it’s not done until the signature is on the piece of paper. That can’t be until March 31st, so there is a waiting game here.”
Clegg says Wickham has previously put pen to paper on an agreement which states his intention to sign a professional deal when he turns 17: "We have a pre-contract agreement with him, but that’s not legally binding for someone operating under a scholarship arrangement.”
If Wickham were to break this arrangement and join another club, Clegg says he would expect the Blues to receive a larger settlement than would otherwise be the case: "The compensation would be higher than if we didn’t have the pre-contract agreement, but don’t try and quantify that because it would have to go to an FA tribunal. They would look at a whole range of issues and there is no set formula which would dictate what level of compensation we would get as a result.”
However, Clegg, who says he has had no contact from any other club regarding the frontman, expects Wickham to honour the earlier agreement: "We remain confident that Connor sees his imminent future at this football club and we’re excited by that and we’re working to that particular goal.”
Wickham became Town’s youngest ever first team player when he made his debut as a sub in last season’s home game against Doncaster. He scored his first senior goals in the Carling Cup tie at Shrewsbury and has now made three starts and nine sub appearances for the first team.