Just to chuck my two penneth worth into the Connor debate I would say that on balance it would be a big mistake for us to sell him now. There are a number of pros and cons but surely we need to mantain one of the founding traditions of this great club. There is no financial imperative to sell Connor this year nor to sell him and loan back for a season. Why not ignore the offers this year and concentrate on getting Connor playing regularly week in and week out alongside Chopra. I am licking my lips at the prospect of these 2 working as our main strike partnership. Connor will develop so much more both mentally and technically next season. He will benefit from a full season of experience in the rough and tumble of the championship and we will begin to see the true potential he has shown in flashes so far. If we listen to offers now surely we will be sacrificing everything that Ipswich Town FC has always stood for by not allowing our promising youth to be nutured and developed? Back in the 1970s Bobby Robson had huge offers for Kevin Beattie by clubs like Leeds, Everton and Liverpool but he resolutely stuck to his guns and turned them all down. John Cobbold and the board of course backed him all the way and Beattie went onto become the Town legend that he is today. If we bite the bullet and accept the offer of £12Million or whatever we will be guilty of sacrificing this young kid to an uncertain future as a youth team player for a big Premiership club. He needs regular competitive football NOW and only Ipswich can offer him this at the moment. We take the money and then get ripped off by every club that we approach for a replacement. Messers Evans, Clegg and Jewell I implore you all to see past the quick buck that will be dangled before you but instead invest in talented youth for the long term future of this great club. Why not send a powerful signal out to everyone in the footballing world that Ipswich is the right place for young talented footballers and a club that will not yield to the big bucks from bigger clubs! That is all!
I think if we get 12m just take the money and run. I don't really care about Wickham's future, by the time he's 19 he will've made more money than many make in a lifetime. I care about the club's future. We need to not worry about ten years from now, only about one, two three years from now. And to our promotion challenge 12m is a lot more useful to us than Connor Wickham.
Passionately agree, however...... Mr Evans eyes £x million return against the £x million he's already invested. I'm sure he's just as frustrated at the lack of progress in the 4 years since he took over the club. I'm hoping that he'll back PJ as much if not more than Magic & Keane. We stand a much better chance of reaching the big boys league if we keep him
Yorky I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you big time! I just think you are being so short termist and just plain wrong! The Ipswich way has always been to nuture and develop our younger players and to enable them to realise their true talents. Sir Bobby would be turning in his grave at your remarks. He spent the whole of his tenure with us setting up our youth system! Why should we allow all our young talent to just leave after the hard work we have put in developing them!
I'd love to see him stay for another season at least. We are concerned about who we might sign to improve things right now and yet we have 'one of our own' in place already. It seems counter intuitive to me to be on the hunt for new talent at the same time as letting such obvious talent leave. Another year older, in a stronger team and he can surely only improve and we should get the double whammy benefit of that. Firstly, his contribution to our 2011/12 campaign but, also his bankable value should go up nicely, so when the inevitable does happen and he moves on, we could well be looking at something well north of £10M. Lets hang on to him and not flinch and throw our winning hand in too soon is certainly my preference. Here's another thought; if promotion is really worth £30M (as we keep hearing from the pundits and media) and we think we might just have a chance in the next couple of seasons, then economically it would make sense to keep our £10M asset and use 'that' to secure £30M future inward investment - makes a pretty compelling cost benefit case to me! Plus, I totally agree as a fan and a spectator that the double act of Chopra and Wickham is quite a mouth watering prospect.
I'd love to keep him but Liverpool's spending on young english players (Carrol £35 Mil? Henderson £20 Mil?) has pushed his value through the roof. As long as the £14 Mil is re-invested into the playing staff i think it is in our best intrests. Town have always had to sell it's assets (Dyer, Bramble, Wright, Ambrose, Bent... ) for reasonable prices, but now we can ask for more. £14 Mil would be a fantastic chance to build a promotion chasing side. Hopefully we can get him back on a season long loan.
Agree whole heartedly with JWM. Short term reasons - Chopra and Wickham upfront with carson and possibly coppinger supplying the chances will the best attacking line up we've had in ages. You say the 12million will help build a squad but in realistically how many decent players can we get 12million when peoplle know we've just got that extra money that we don't desperatly need, while also remembering evans will probably want to pocket some of it to make up some of what he's put into the club. Long term reasons - Not only for wickhams future, but as JWM says for ipswichs future, attracting young players to stay in our academy, although the reality is unless we break into the top half of the prem then all decent young talent will move on eventually why encourage it?, why bother getting excited about any homegrown talent emerging. Should we just get put Whight and Carson up for sale aswell and use it to import players with no connection to the club at all? Should we just sell out to the new football culture we all profess to hate? Back to the point about Wickhams future, OK i dont really care too much about England, but wouldn't you love in the future for wickham to be leading englands attack and be able to say, thats an ipswich product, be able to be proud of what we produce, give wickham the opportunity to prove us all right about his ability and potential
The difference with all of those named is that we got good value out of them as players first. They had plenty of first team action for us before they eventually moved on. We haven't had that yet from a 17 year old. He will go one day I'm sure but, lets have at least a season with him as a first team regular please!
I hear what your saying JWM and in an ideal world to hang onto him would be great. In reality I fear that he could well be offered regular football at Sunderland 'cos they are short on strikers and Connor is a self professed Liverpool fan and if they show they are really interested with an acceptable bid that could be enough to turn his head. I'm not that interested in the loan back offer. I'm not into training somebody elses player for their benefit.
We are under no pressure to sell and if Evans can hold his nerve and realise what is at stake as opposed to just making money we shall be all the better for it! We have a hard won reputation in football as a club that believes in developing youth to play in the first team on a regular basis. Come on Evans prove that you understand the club that you own and hold firm!
WHEN we reach the premier league we will need homegrown talent in our squad to satisfy the rules, so why sell a quality English player who we may HAVE to replace when we reach the promised land?
Blimey lads. Reading this thread makes me want to make contributions towards some flowers for each and everyone of you, along with Camilla Haycock. This is passion of the highest quality. The threads as entered by JWM, Mike Holmes 1990 and Tractor Tim, I can only endorse each word you say. But the however is and rightly as Blus Monkey puts it, will Marcus want to recoup some of the outlay that he has invested within the club. Personally, I think not. I can see Marcus backing PJ to the hilt, and yes it may take another couple of "offloads" to bring in who he wants, but it will not be at the exspense of Connor. As GUDTWY put it, "WHEN we reach the premier league we will need homegrown talent in our squad to satisfy the rules, so why sell a quality English player who we may HAVE to replace when we reach the promised land?" So its full steam ahead and COYB
The fact of the matter is what has Connor actually achieved to justify this high price tag everyone in the country has put on his head. I (like every other Town fan) can see he is destined for far greater than mid table Championship but atleast Carroll and Henderson had proven themselves at Premiership level before their big money moves. It's difficult to see which side to support the 'sell' or 'keep' brigade. Obviously nurturing through the academy is great for the club but he is currently not worth the £12million+ thats being reported (will he be worth that in a couple of years? Probably.) I do feel however though that any decision will be out of PJ's hands and the owner will put his foot down if there really is a sizable offer as he has put a considerable amount of money in with very little gains and most businessmen in that situation would see this situation as a cash cow and take the opportunity.
