R.I.P. Ipswich Town FC....

[Kheffan]

I'm also incredibly frustrated at this... But for other reasons too. I mean £9m up front? What the hell happened to the £15m we were all raving about? I don't want f**king future fee bullshit We could have gotten a better offer.

Also I just love how quickly Connor's intentions to stay with us and get us promoted went out of the window when approached with an offer...
Who can replace him? Any ideas?

everyone has his price and that was his ... simple as

[Johannes Hyacinthus]

I'm also incredibly frustrated at this... But for other reasons too. I mean £9m up front? What the hell happened to the £15m we were all raving about? I don't want f**king future fee bullshit We could have gotten a better offer.

Also I just love how quickly Connor's intentions to stay with us and get us promoted went out of the window when approached with an offer...
Who can replace him? Any ideas?

everyone has his price and that was his ... simple as

He definately wanted to go... good luck to the lad, but I don't care what happens to him from now on. It wasn't like a dream move.. it was Sunderland. Not Spurs or Liverpool or Arsenal.. Sunderland... ha... I love his comments about loving their ambition. Thats just another pile of bullshit that comes from a player's mouth who wants a move for personal reasons but wants to dress it up as a considered professional decision. Good luck to him... we've all played up the hype and now we have a decent amount of money for him and so its up to us to spend it wisely...

To the original poster...'who can replace him?'... well, how about someone who can score 10-12 goals a season? Ha... its OK now.. he's gone now..we don't have to pretend he was giving us 20 goals a season and made us promotion contenders... a Championship player who can give us 20 goals and push us towards the play-offs would be an improvement and would be better for us.
He gave us some nice moments... but it was all about potential.

[hallamblue]

I really dont blame him. If he wants to play in the Prem , then "have a go".

Arsenal's Wilshire made a comment this week about it being the "right thing to do".....now maybe people can see CW wasnt just sitting on the bench in that U21's tournament ...he was getting loads of 2advice" from his premieship team mates , and comparing wage slips !

I hope he cracks it , but the word of warnings have also been given to him by M Stwerat. He'll HAVE to come up with the goods, and hit the ground running to justify to the renowned inpateint Sunderland fans that huge fee. CW may really pull it off and become a great player , or he could fall flat on his face like Richard Wright did !
I hope (and believe) it will be the former option!

[helen83]

I really dont blame him. If he wants to play in the Prem , then "have a go".

Arsenal's Wilshire made a comment this week about it being the "right thing to do".....now maybe people can see CW wasnt just sitting on the bench in that U21's tournament ...he was getting loads of 2advice" from his premieship team mates , and comparing wage slips !

I hope he cracks it , but the word of warnings have also been given to him by M Stwerat. He'll HAVE to come up with the goods, and hit the ground running to justify to the renowned inpateint Sunderland fans that huge fee. CW may really pull it off and become a great player , or he could fall flat on his face like Richard Wright did !
I hope (and believe) it will be the former option!

I think they'll look after him ok up there. The fans may be passionate, but not daft enough to expect miracles from an 18 yr old. Was different when Stewart went there, he was older, and expectations would have been different.

[Charnwood]

I'm also incredibly frustrated at this... But for other reasons too. I mean £9m up front? What the hell happened to the £15m we were all raving about? I don't want f**king future fee bullshit We could have gotten a better offer.

Also I just love how quickly Connor's intentions to stay with us and get us promoted went out of the window when approached with an offer...
Who can replace him? Any ideas?

Why should anyone feel frustrated about the size of the fee which is a record for a Championship player who's never played in the Premiership, and for a teenager with only 32 league appearances and 13 league goals to his name. The reality is there were no other offers to consider let alone better ones, just the one offer from Sunderland who've paid a shed load of dough for nothing more than a lad with potential, and if they're lucky enough to realise that potential we get some more, what could be better than that. The rumored interest from clubs like Arsenal, Spurs and Tottenham never materialised and even if they had they would have been far less appropriate destinations than Sunderland where he will get a very good education under Steve Bruce and a far better chance of getting some regular involvement in the first team.

You also seem to have forgotten that by Connor signing a new contract last season he did the club a huge favour and made sure that Town benefited from a substantial fee that would have been a pittance had he declared his intentions to move earlier.

Finally an 18 year old is never going to get any Championship side promoted not even Connor Wickham, his replacement Michael Chopra however, may just be a player who can.

[hallamblue]

I'm also incredibly frustrated at this... But for other reasons too. I mean £9m up front? What the hell happened to the £15m we were all raving about? I don't want f**king future fee bullshit We could have gotten a better offer.

Also I just love how quickly Connor's intentions to stay with us and get us promoted went out of the window when approached with an offer...
Who can replace him? Any ideas?

Why should anyone feel frustrated about the size of the fee which is a record for a Championship player who's never played in the Premiership, and for a teenager with only 32 league appearances and 13 league goals to his name. The reality is there were no other offers to consider let alone better ones, just the one offer from Sunderland who've paid a shed load of dough for nothing more than a lad with potential, and if they're lucky enough to realise that potential we get some more, what could be better than that. The rumored interest from clubs like Arsenal, Spurs and Tottenham never materialised and even if they had they would have been far less appropriate destinations than Sunderland where he will get a very good education under Steve Bruce and a far better chance of getting some regular involvement in the first team.

You also seem to have forgotten that by Connor signing a new contract last season he did the club a huge favour and made sure that Town benefited from a substantial fee that would have been a pittance had he declared his intentions to move earlier.

Finally an 18 year old is never going to get any Championship side promoted not even Connor Wickham, his replacement Michael Chopra however, may just be a player who can.

... you know, you are far too sensible for this forum Charnwood !

[N1blue]

Why should anyone feel frustrated about the size of the fee which is a record for a Championship player who's never played in the Premiership, and for a teenager with only 32 league appearances and 13 league goals to his name.

My thoughts precisely. Just because there's been three or four other daft prices paid recently - all for players that have proven themselves in the Prem or overseas - we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this was an astonishing sum we received. Assuming we end up with £12-13m, only Rooney, Anderson and now Phil Jones have ever cost more as teenagers. It's on a par with what Ronaldo cost United, more than Arsenal paid for Walcott, far more than Spurs paid for Bale etc, etc.

I think for some of the top clubs, far from needing another year to prove himself more at Championship level, it may already have been a year or so late for some of them to be interested. Arsenal, for example, would have been more likely to pick him up one or two seasons ago and then mould him more themselves. But then they'd probably have been looking to pay £3-5m max up front. It'll be interesting to see what they're prepared to pay for 17-year old Oxlade-Chamberlain, whom they and some other top clubs (eg United) have been linked to and the press have been banging on about, even more than they have Wickham, for some time. Man United's attitude would probably have been much the same. They'd either have wanted to buy him younger and cheaper or will be prepared to pay more for him once he's proved himself in the top flight. Bear in mind that at United, they already have Welbeck (ahead of Wickham in England's U21 team) and Macheda as young striking prospects (quite aside from Hernandez, that is!), who were both out on loan last season and would have had to feel Wickham was a big step up from them to be worth spending any money on.

Spurs have had a track record for buying some good young Championship players in the past. But not for that sort of money. Dawson cost them £4m, Huddlestone £2.5m, Bale £5m rising to £10m. All three were around Connor's age. Aaron Lennon cost them just £1m from Leeds at 17. Despite 'Arry's lack of confidence in their existing strikers, their interest was always likely to be curtailed by failing to qualify for the Champions League. That's just put a pretty big hole in their budget which could be filled by selling Modric and Bale but then they're going to need some surefire bets as reinforcements. I couldn't see them gambling £10m+ on a Championship kid. I thought Liverpool was a serious possibility, given the money they've been throwing around and their clear policy to focus on youth. And I thought that he'd have had a chance of getting quite a few games there too, given Carrol's injury track record and the comparative lack of competition for their forward roles. Suarez is obviously a terrific player but as I said before, if Wickham couldn't displace N'gog from their team he's not even worth £5m of anybody's money. Neither Chelsea or Man City were ever likely to be his destination and both would probably have been very bad for him anyway.

Aside from those top six clubs, there are very few that were ever likely to match what Sunderland offered. For several other clubs, £8.1m rising to £12-13m would have been at or close to a record signing and a risk they simply couldn't afford. Even the likes of Everton rarely splash out more than that for players, once every couple of seasons or so at the most and invariably for proven players (Fellaini, Yakubu et al). Sunderland were in an almost unique position, not only being consistently one of the top spenders in recent seasons but also having both the £20m from Jordan Henderson and a fair chunk of their Darren Bent money still unspent. And with Welbeck returning to United on loan, they had a desperate need for a striker. Unless Frazier Campbell makes an unexpected recovery, their only other notable forward player is Asmoah Gyan, who starred for Ghana in the world cup and who at £13m, cost them about the same as they'll hopefully end up paying for Wickham, underlining again what an excellent fee we got.

Despite my initial scepticism on hearing of their interest, on reflection, I don't think the Sunderland move should work out too badly for him. I'm not a great fan of Bruce as a manager but he does alright and he's probably a pretty good guy for looking after younger players. If Wickham's as good as we hope he is, Sunderland should prove to be a stepping stone and with a couple of years of Prem experience - and hopefully a promising start to his senior England career - we could well see a bigger club coming in with a bigger fee for him. So all things considered, I'm hopeful that the move will work out well for Wickham, for Sunderland and for England and I'm entirely convinced this was a very good move for Marcus Evans. Whether it was a good move for Ipswich Town fans depends on what happens to the money.

PS - a word of warning on that front - even the "upfront" £8.1m is likely to be paid in installments, it won't all be cash in the bank just yet.

[jeremy rusher]

Selling Wickham...Fans sold down the river ...Na?

The only person i feel who sold the fans down the river was the previous chairman...it still hurts me today what DS did to this club with his awful decisions and lack of football knowledge.
The millions this club lost will never be forgotten.

Thats my opinion.

[jakhr8]

Selling Wickham...Fans sold down the river ...Na?

The only person i feel who sold the fans down the river was the previous chairman...it still hurts me today what DS did to this club with his awful decisions and lack of football knowledge.
The millions this club lost will never be forgotten.

Thats my opinion.

Just one thing I want to ask you, if DS had a lack of football knowledge where does that leave u us with Evans and Clegg then?

[hallamblue]

...and I s'ppose the simultainious collapse of digital tv and associated revenues, and slump in transfer market (fees), was all Sheepshanks' fault as well , eh ?

[Dubai Blue]

Hallam, you should remember that you should never let facts exert too much influence on your opinion

[blunderbus]

Selling Wickham...Fans sold down the river ...Na?

The only person i feel who sold the fans down the river was the previous chairman...it still hurts me today what DS did to this club with his awful decisions and lack of football knowledge.
The millions this club lost will never be forgotten.

Thats my opinion.

Just one thing I want to ask you, if DS had a lack of football knowledge where does that leave u us with Evans and Clegg then?

I assume you are talking about us going into administration, What you need to remember is this, George Burley was the manager of the year and went to DS and said I want Matio Serine and Finidi George, DS got them in, and they were hopeless, and those buys for £8m took us into administration, now if DS had not bought them and we still had to go into administration, he would have been villified for not backing the manager of the year, DS imo was a good chairman brought into the club by the Cobbolds.

[K L Blue]

Just one thing I want to ask you, if DS had a lack of football knowledge where does that leave u us with Evans and Clegg then?

I assume you are talking about us going into administration, What you need to remember is this, George Burley was the manager of the year and went to DS and said I want Matio Serine and Finidi George, DS got them in, and they were hopeless, and those buys for £8m took us into administration, now if DS had not bought them and we still had to go into administration, he would have been villified for not backing the manager of the year, DS imo was a good chairman brought into the club by the Cobbolds.[/quote]

the reason Serini was brought was, Richard Wright went to Arsenal, and we needed a decent keeper, because we were in europe.
Finidi George was brought becasue it was thought he would add something to the team.
both players were brought by the club at a time when football was awash with money for transfer fees(whether or not they worked out)

Sheepshank couldnt forsee the ITV Digital collapse, it could have been a lot worse, just look at Leicester and how far down and how long for they went.

[hallamblue]

Hallam, you should remember that you should never let facts exert too much influence on your opinion

I try not to , but Im very good at that, am I !

[Bluemike]

We still have a club thanks in no small part to David Sheepshanks, yes he was fortunate in that the position he held at the time within football no doubt made him party to info that others may not have been blessed with, by that I mean he knew exactly when the time was right for this club to enter administration without the heavy penalties that are incurred now, not long after the rules changed, he then went on to seek the investment needed to keep the club alive and found it in the shape of Marcus Evans, whilst at the same time basically cutting his own throat at the club. Anyone who thinks Sheepshanks sold this clubs fans down the river is totally misguided in my humble opinion.

[The Don]

That's a very extreme view on sheepy, one I feel that is very misguided. Most people have already covered the administration side of things, but to question his knowledge is surprising. He is extremely smart when it comes to networking and it was no error that he was touted as a potential head of the FA. I still feel Evans should have allowed him to remain in some capacity. His connections would have been extremely useful

[Herbivore]

It was a mistake to build two new stands at costs which ran to tens of millions, though.

[Jamma123]

It was a mistake to build two new stands at costs which ran to tens of millions, though.

That's very true but it's easy to say all these things in retrospect. I bet at the time there wasn't one ITFC fan not thinking we were in the Prem to stay and looking to build for the next level.

[Herbivore]

It was a mistake to build two new stands at costs which ran to tens of millions, though.

That's very true but it's easy to say all these things in retrospect. I bet at the time there wasn't one ITFC fan not thinking we were in the Prem to stay and looking to build for the next level.

Personally i did think it was a touch premature, i'd have rather seen us stay up for another season first. I think i was probably in the minority mind you.

[Munty]

It was a mistake to build two new stands at costs which ran to tens of millions, though.

Didn't learn from the 80's in that respect.. biggest thing to go wrong was ole pob' (wright) leaving when we were at the top, if your best players still want to move on to sit on the bench of another team then what the hell can you really do..

[Bluemike]

It was a mistake to build two new stands at costs which ran to tens of millions, though.

With hindsight its hard to argue with you, but its a catch 22 situation, had we not done it when we did we would have a pretty crap ground now as we probably never would have done what with relegation and all.

[The Don]

I'm in the herb camp and remember thinking it was premature. Yes we'd done incredibly well that season but consolidation should have always been the plan. A couple of steady years in mid table and then build them. It doesn't actually matter now but yeah, that certainly didn't help us

[barmy billy]

As has been said, hindsight is a wonderful thing but at the time with the Club flying it seemed the right thing to do and I don't remember hearing much dissention at the time. With Churchmans a shed and the NS way past its best, improvements were certainly needed.

When we did so well relegation was not even a consideration (according to one of the Club's in-house accounting staff I knew) so you can understand perhaps why we proceeded. At least though we're in good shape for the Premiership come this time next year.

[Herbivore]

Churchmans was done as soon as we got promoted and that was fair enough, i just felt it was too soon to do the North Stand as well the following season, and not just for the financial side of things but for the massive impact it had on the atmosphere inside PR that season, particularly early on when we were struggling. I felt at the time we should have given it another year at least. It was naive to think that after one good season we were an established Prem side.

[K L Blue]

Churchmans was done as soon as we got promoted and that was fair enough, i just felt it was too soon to do the North Stand as well the following season, and not just for the financial side of things but for the massive impact it had on the atmosphere inside PR that season, particularly early on when we were struggling. I felt at the time we should have given it another year at least. It was naive to think that after one good season we were an established Prem side.

Boy did the corrugated iron sheets take a beating every weekend!
and it changed the atmosphere.

and since they're gone, it hasnt been the same