Boss Roy Keane says 17-year-old striker Connor Wickham’s rawness is part of what makes him so difficult to defend against. Wickham looks set to be recalled to Town’s starting line-up tomorrow when the Blues face Cardiff City at Portman Road.

Keane said: “He’s very raw, but raw is a good, I like raw. Let’s not over-coach the boy. He’s very raw, but give me raw all day.

“There’s a danger of babysitting these boys, ‘you’ve got to do this with the ball…’. Players have got to learn to make their own decisions and they only get that playing games regularly, playing against different types of teams, bigger players, stronger players.

“That’s what we like about Connor,” Keane added. “Sometimes when you watch him train you think the boy’s not really been coached. The boy’s not really ‘mechanical’, he’s hard to predict.

“With a lot of these young players who end up playing for England’s U19s or U21s, technically, they’re good players, but they’re predictable.”

Keane says that is something which can happen to players coming through the academy system: “I think, if you are going to be critical of academies, maybe a lot of the players are wrapped in cotton wool and are probably getting over-coached. I think they have been criticised for that.

“They’re not streetwise and not playing against players a lot older them in rough-and-ready leagues. But having said that, when you see the facilities and the opportunity these young boys are getting, it’s fantastic.

“It comes down to the player, I don’t care what you provide for him, it comes down to that hunger and that desire. You can have the best coaches and the best facilities, but if the player hasn’t got the hunger and 100% desire to become a footballer, they will not become a footballer, no chance.”

Getting back to Wickham, Keane says he’s done everything possible to earn himself a start: “He’s given me a bloody headache, but that’s good. He’s saying to me, ‘you’ve got to play me on Saturday’, from his 45 minutes the other night, simple as that.

“He’s not kicked a ball for two and a bit months. He’s not playing for the reserves, he’s skipped the reserves, he’s saying ‘I’m ready for the first team’.

“Some players want six bloody months in the reserves, ‘give me 45 minutes, give me an hour…’. Why not skip all that nonsense and train and play like it’s your last day on the planet?”

Meanwhile, Wickham has been named in the England U19 international squad for their European Championships qualifying group games in Belgium next month.

England play Albania on October 8th, Cyprus two days later and finally the hosts on October 13th. Wickham, who scored the winning goal in the final of the European U17 Championships last summer, is yet to win a cap at U19 level.

Photo: Action Images

kiwomyashuffle added 15:15 - Sep 17 Brilliant soundbite from Keane: “Some players want six bloody months in the reserves, ‘give me 45 minutes, give me an hour…'. Why not skip all that nonsense and train and play like it's your last day on the planet?” Give Wickham an hour tomorrow. He could terrorise them and win us the game. If the back 4 are occupied by him, Scotland maybe able to get a simple tap-in or two

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itfc1981 added 15:51 - Sep 17 bet he's on the bench!
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Back_The_Boss added 17:33 - Sep 17 He may still be a little unfit but start him on saturday upfront with Scotland. He always looks dangerous and a real threat. COYB!
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Tractorog added 17:35 - Sep 17 Are these comments aimed at Luca Civelli?
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Dale added 17:56 - Sep 17 “Some players want six bloody months in the reserves, ‘give me 45 minutes, give me an hour…'. Why not skip all that nonsense and train and play like it's your last day on the planet?” So that they won't get injured again right away?
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Mark added 18:12 - Sep 17 Wickham played 45 minutes Tuesday, so no reason why he couldn't start and play 60 minutes tomorrow I would have thought. I wonder if that was a dig at Civelli in there. To be fair, Wickham has been out for 6 weeks and Civelli over 70 weeks.
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Harry_Palmer added 18:36 - Sep 17 I doubt very much that was a dig at Civelli as Keane has only recently said he needs more time to get back to first team level.
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SurreyITFC added 19:01 - Sep 17 Wickham Rawness - Let him take on Cardiff from the start and cause them problems which then could create opportunities for others. COYB - Wickham to bag his first goal of the season tomorrow
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brockleyblueboy added 02:06 - Sep 18 I don't mean to be rude, but leave Civelli alone. His career threatening injury can not be compared compared to Wickhams. The fact that Civelli is a few weeks away from a 1st team start is incredible. Wickham is another fantastic product of the Ipswich Youth set up but this lad will go all the way and hopefully he can get there with Ipswich
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