This rubbish is coming from Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1294916/Arsenal-Tottenham-set-
If you read through the article you will see all kind of crazy rubbish like "Town are forced to sell 8 stars" to fix the books and etc. This is absolute rubbish!!!
The question is if a real offer comes for Connor what is the right thing to do. My opinion is that a real offer will not exceed £4-5M so forget about it. But if a £10M offer comes (I don't believe anybody can give that much for a not proven potential) I'd say we should sell him. For Connor it will not be a good move for it will stop his development but for Town it will be a good move! Really - Connor may become the next Rooney and cost £20-30M in a couple of seasons but there is a bigger possibility that nothing like what is expected comes of him. That said it is better to get £10M now and get strikers that can help us go up than wait and stay in this Championship. In addition even if Connor has a great season this year we cannot rely on a 17 years old boy to get us in the Premier League. If we do that we are doomed. Let us be fair.

I agree, no point selling him now, I know we will never be a massive club but that doesnt mean we have to accept champioship or relegation scraps in the Prem year in year out. This is the type of player our team should be built round, not cashed in on.

I also wonder if we will be saying this in a years time. Its a big season for him.

@Georgi re. not proven potential. Didn't Arsenal pay £12M for Walcott from Southampton?

Shame it's not Chelsea and Man City in the bidding war, then we would be talking silly money.

if Conner progreses as we hope he will be sold in the long term even if we get promotion.
He will need a couple of years in the championship what ever so keep hold for a year and look at it again at the end of the season
if he does well more clubs will want him if he does not we are no worse off as we are now

So to sum up, nobody has anything to say that hasn't already been done to death on every Wickham link?

Also this news story badly needs a Jordan Rhodes related flounce.

Agree with you Fatboy - Arsenal paid the £12M for Walcott. But that is an exception. Usually for a young promising players the big club pay no more than £5M - Aaron Ramsey from Cardiff, Victor Moses from Palace and etc. The big clubs have big money but they keep it for world class players. My point on "unproven talent" was only to say Connor is not a big layer yet. And for the uncertainty the big clubs will not pay over £5M. All these rumors that Spurs came again with £8M and that Arsenal are matching that are not true... Only papers like Dayly Mail can write this crap.

The thing is Georgi the guy who wrote the peice is Mel Henderson and if you dont know your history(dont want to sound patronising by the way!) was ITFC PR Officer during the Robson era, was chief sports writer for the star for a 20 odd years, this isnt some made up story from some norman in bolton. this guy has close ties not only with town but with other journos in the smoke. £10m for a guy who has played 5 1st team games isnt bad money, who knows he could get injured pre season and suddendly our superstar to win us promotion has gone.

Hype313 I didn't know about Mel Henderson... Thanks for that. So you say there may be more truth in this article? Then I don't know what ME position would be about that. I bet he knows that most of the 8 transfer listed are "married" to Town at least for one more season so he shouldn't expect a lot coming from them (or savings from wages at least) so he maight consider selling Connor anyways....

If the press speculation is true, where were Spurs and Arsenal when Connor signed his contract, when they could have had him for a pittance in compensation?

George, to be honest i dont know how much truth there is but all i know is somethings going on, with regards to ME god knows what his plans are, with sheepshanks at least you knew he believed in the development of youth, but this guy is a businessman, he wants his return and if £8m is offered then he seems like the sort of guy who would take it.

SouperJim, luckily Connor's run of form in the first team and his U17 Championship goals came after he signed his contract back in March.

If we don't need the money (which as i understand we do not) then £10 million is not worth excepting. If he does score 15-20 goals this season that do get us promoted then he is worth so much more to us.

There is no garantee that he will score those goals and he may not live up to expectation but that's a gamble we need to take. Plus if we did sell and get the money to spend on other players there is no garantee that they would work out for us as we very well know with some of the decent money signings we have made that have flopped.

The team needs to ne built around him and how he plays and do everything we can to ensure he does live up the the hype that surounds him. I can't wait to see connor play a masssive part in our push for promotion this season! (i hope)

Well said Jim324

For the sake of Wickham I hope he stays.

He will benefit much more learning the game here rather than playing in some big clubs reserve team with the odd venture off the bench in the League Cup.

From a clubs prospective every player has a price but this lad has a future and I'd like him to start it here and not end it at a big club prematurely.

Jim324, the club is somewhere in the region of £35-50m in debt and ME is having to plough money into the club from his other business ventures and as recent football history has shown every club owner that leaves a club expects to get whatever money they have put into the club back when they eventually leave - ITFC does need the money. How much patience does ME have? Sheffield Utd & QPR have spent years & more money than us trying to get out of this division and are still here.

If wickham is smart he will stay with us to develop instead of sitting on the bench at arsenal or spurs if they did get him

Would be really peed off if ANYONE was to buy Connor at the moment. I renewed my season ticket on the strength that he would still be our player and the only positive thing to come out of last season.

We need him in the side to get the fans upbeat. Who's to say that any replacement , even an expensive one, will be any better? At the risk of being slated, I still think we would have fared far better last season, if we had hung onto Jordan Rhodes. Lets face it, he couldnt have made it any worse!

PLease ITFC, dont sell yet.

Pure speculation - Would spoil his future by going there.

Speculation, No Truth in it, Utter Clap Trap and Lazy Jurno Syndrome again. Yawn.

Next.

I must be honest and say any good young players we have ever had, have never made it when moving to bigger clubs, remember we were once being chased for Bowditch's signature by Man U for a million squid!
I say if the offer is £10 Mill then take it, it may just save us from another season of struggling!!!!

i would go if i were him not many better clubs or managers for a 17 year old then wenger and the arsenal!

He's only on a 2 year contract because that's all you can have at 17, just FYI

Oh I see, it's the three league goals he scored after signing his contract and a handful of games for the U17s that have prompted these clubs that previously could have had him for under £1m in compensation to table offers of £8m+! Makes perfect sense. No chance of it just being lazy journalism, oh no. These clubs clearly had never heard of him before April.

I guess rumours about Connor going will continue until Septmber 1st and then start up again in January, no doubt the Evening Star will pick up on this in about 2 days time putting a negative slant on it before the stating that they are "backing the blues".
Every player has his price and if Connor continues to fulfill his potential he will move to a bigger side soon enough. However now is not the right time for either the player or the club to sell, I think Keane realises this, I just hope M.E does too!
Would be very surprised if he is sold for at least another year or so

I really hope Wickham stays. But £8M is a lot of money for a 17 year old, who could be a great player or who could end up like Bowditch ...

Bottom line is ME will make the final decision on this.