Chief executive Simon Clegg has confirmed that the cash from the sale of striker Connor Wickham will be reinvested into Paul Jewell’s squad. The Blues chief also confirmed that as revealed by TWTD earlier this afternoon, the club negotiated a sell-on clause in addition to the initial £8.1 million fee and the other add-ons which could potentially take the deal beyond £12 million.
Speaking in an interview with Talksport, Clegg said Jewell will be given the funds in order to build a promotion-challenging squad: "The money is going to be reinvested into the football club and we’re very clear in terms of where we want to get to.
"We continue to have high ambitions for the club in terms of playing Premiership football again at the earliest opportunity, and Paul made it clear earlier in the summer that he had resources to spend irrespective of whether Connor moved on or not.
"The situation is unchanged - the owner and I continue to wholeheartedly back the manager and he’s proving very savvy in the transfer market.”
The former British Olympic Association boss says that in line with many other deals, the fee isn’t payable immediately in one lump sum but wouldn’t confirm the timetable: "I don’t want to get into the details and the confidential clauses of the contract between the two clubs, but suffice to say as of tomorrow morning I won’t have £8.1 million of new money to spend.”
Clegg says that the cash will allow the Blues greater freedom in the transfer market, not just between now and the end of August but during future transfer windows: "We’ve made three good signings already and the window continues to be open for some weeks going forward, so let’s see where we get to.
"The most important thing is that we’ve got resources now to spend over the coming transfer windows on bringing in new players to help build the squad and take us in the direction we want to go in.”
The chief executive says the deal is the right one for the club and paid tribute to those who honed Wickham's talent since he joined from Reading’s academy in 2006: "He is a huge talent but this is a very good business deal for the football club.
"I’m absolutely delighted with a fee of £8.1 million rising to potentially £12 million, with some additional sell-ons further down the line as well.
"It’s a really good deal but tinged with a degree of sadness that Connor, who has come through our academy here, is moving on.
"And huge credit today to the academy team that have helped him develop since he joined us some years ago and put him into the first team when he was 16 years and 11 days old.”