Sunderland Wrap Up £8m Deal For Wunderkind Connor Wickham, Beat Liverpool To The Punch

Chris Wright

29th, June 2011

5 Comments

By Chris Wright

It’s hardly the world’s closest-guarded secret that Sunderland are in the market for a striker or two this summer and it looks like the Black Cats are about to get the ball rolling with the £9 million capture of 18-year old Ipswich prodigy Connor Wickham – yes, he of that goal against Sheffield United…

Liverpool are known to have been hovering over Wickham for a fair old while, but Sunderland’s decision to break cover early and go in with a weighty opening bid seems to have cut the mustard – with BBC Sport reporting that Ipswich are ready to accept the offer (having already bought in Michael Chopra and Nathan Ellington to bolster their forward ranks) with the teenage striker set to travel to Wearside for a medical later today.

Your move Kenny, your move.

UPDATE: Sunderland have this afternoon confirmed the signing of Wickham on a four-year deal, for an initial fee of £8.1 million – though the price is liable to rise to as much as £12 million if certain ‘performance-based clauses’ are triggered between now and 2015.

Posted in Sunderland, Transfers & Rumours

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5 Comments

  1. nickooo says:

    Shame liverpool would have paid at least 25mil for him

  2. hgo says:

    hahaha queen kenny missed again, lpool will end up outside top 6 next year:DD

  3. Riley says:

    Everything I’ve read says that we liked Wickham, Wickham liked us (at least more than Sunderland) but we weren’t willing to match Sunderland’s offer. I’m not too bothered to be honest. He would have been 4th choice here and would have been a luxury to have right now. That money needs to be used on more pressing areas of the squad. If we end the summer without a decent winger and left back, then I’ll panic.

  4. Balls-2-U says:

    @Riley: Agreed. For the money we would have had to pay for him, better to spend it on other more urgent areas. And would also like to see more academy kids getting a run out, heard we got some gems in there. YNWA!

  5. chimpo says:

    £35m for fat andy carroll yet they wouldnt match that offer?

    @riley good point about him being 4th choice though- its probably in his best interest to play regularly for a top 10 team rather than be bench warming

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