... various sources suggesting we have put in a £5m bid for him ... just wanted to get an 'insider' view on how good he is / might become?
Can I first of all say I sincerely hope not, we could potentially get another £5 million of top ups out of Sunderland. I'll answer your question first. Connor Wickham can be as good as he wants to be, he has the ability. Has pretty much every attritute you'd want too. Big/strong/ quick/ good touch/ ability to skin a player/ and work rate. For us he was brilliant. Way too good for this division, if he gets his head down he'll be a part of England's Euro 2016 squad of that I have no doubt. We all saw what he did at the end of last season in the last twelve games or so. I would also say ( despite him entering the final year of contract... ) £5million for an Englishman with such ability who has now scored premier league goals - you are miles off with a bid like that. That said, Di Canio wasn't impressed with Wickham off the pitch. Apparently refusing to train when it rains, doing loads of stupid selfies on Twitter and being more interested in his image haven't helped his development. I guess his rumoured £40,000 plus wages at the age of 17/18 does make motivation perhaps dwindle in some cases..... He hasn't come on as was hoped when he moved from us, that is also true. Last season was his best however with a very good loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday then as I put above finally scoring the goals. In closing, I would say last season was by far the best of his career, and if he carries on and develops more this season he will certainly hit 15+ premier league goals regardless of where he is playing. It's down to Connor now.
Not sure if he has the right attitude to match his talents. I don't think he'll ever get to the level most of us thought he would unfortunately, he spent too long sitting on the Sunderland bench and hasn't really progressed enough for his age. He does have the attributes to be a good player, if someone can get him to use them all properly.
Thanks for the input so far fellas ... wouldn't probably be such a hot one if he hadn't been spotted in the High Cross area of Leicester by someone from our board at the start of summer ... also might be relevant that our manager has over the last 24 hours being making comments alluding to potntial signatures of more 'edgy' characters rather than his usual 'good citizen' type of signing with prem survival in mind ... having just seen that McCormack has gone from Leeds to Fulham for £11 million, £5 or £6 for Wickham seems far more palatable ...
Perfect post fella. Apart from the wages. He's on 25k pw reported. The bit about him being as good as he wants to be sums him up. Problem is does he have the comment and drive to fulfill his potential. I'm not so sure but love him to do it and do it with us. That's the question the the club has to ask when offering his new deal. This contract has a risk which could lead to both parties being miles apart in contract terms. There's a big possibility we could sell. We'd need conner to be reasonable, he needs to realise that a 10 game run of form in three seasons doesn't make him 40k pw plus player.
Well he finished last season bang on form and I see no reason given you are settled manager wise why he cannot continue next season where he left off personally. I think if you cash in for such a laughably low fee now you will really regret this as he's clearly starting to come of age, about time too!
With the silly fee's bouncing about there's no way we're going to sell a young, talented, English striker for just 5 million. They are dreaming.
This is exactly what I thought! 5 Million!!! They're having a laugh! We sold him to you for 8 Million!
Apparently Southampton are going to make a bid for him over £10 Million so it will be lovely jubbly!
What are the rest of our top ups? Deal with you guys could reach £13 mill, so what do we need to wait for!?
Not sure but as he's only made 43 prem appearances (most off the bench), 6 premier league goals and yet to make the England squad, you'll won't have received any extras yet, some will be released when he makes his 50th appearance but you'll have while to wait before you receive the rest. Extras tend to be structured don't they?
Yeah they do. Lets hope a new deal gets sorted from our end. I actually don't know what he's playing at. Must be being badly advised by an idiotic agent. He'd be better off continuing from you guys where he ended up last year, signing a new deal ( without being greedy ) and actually getting his head down.
