Ipswich Town teenager Connor Wickham is reportedly keen on a move to Liverpool, as Sunderland enter the race for his signature.
According to the Daily Express, the Black Cats are ready to table a £9 million bid for the 18-year-old striker, but Wickham still 'favours' a switch to Merseyside.
It has been claimed that Liverpool have already submitted a bid of £7 million for the England under 21 international, but they are likely to have to up the ante if they are serious about bringing Wickham to Anfield.
Wickham shot to prominence last season, scoring nine goals for Ipswich, before being named Football League Young Player of the Year as well as the Championship Apprentice of the Year at the 2011 Football League Awards.
And, despite the youngster signing a one-year contract extension at Portman Road in April, Liverpool remains hopeful Wickham can add to the recent influx of England youngsters to Anfield.
The big-money signings of Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson - as well as Liverpool missing out on Phil Jones - seems to suggest that the Reds have a strategy of investing in home-grown talent.
However, Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli says that is not strictly true.
"It's not because a player is English and young that we are going to go for him. We go for a player because he ticks all the boxes. It's what we need at this time in this window," he told the official Liverpool website.
"If a player is English or British or has played in the Premier League we'll look at that over someone who is abroad but it could be any nationality as long as they tick the boxes and is what we need for this window and going forward."
No comments:
Post a Comment