• Premier League

Wickham signs new deal as Redknapp rules out swoop

Connor Wickham won the Championship Young Player of the Year award © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Jewell expects Wickham to stay at Ipswich
  
• News: No Bale sale while we still want CL - Redknapp
  
• News: Taarabt scoops top player prize
  
• Match report: Wickham nets hat-trick as Doncaster hit for six
  
• News: Wickham can be as good as Rooney - Keane
  

Ipswich starlet Connor Wickham signed a contract extension with the Championship club on the same day that Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp ruled out a move for the striker.

Wickham, 18, has attracted the interest of a number of Premier League clubs, including Spurs and Liverpool, but Redknapp said it was in the striker's best interest to play in the Championship for another year.

"I don't see us paying the sort of money that Ipswich are talking about," Redknapp said. "He's not someone who'd be ready to play in the first team next season. He'd be better off staying for another year."

Shortly afterwards, Wickham, who was named as the Football League's young player of the season last month, signed a one-year contract extesion to keep him at Ipswich until the summer of 2014.

Tractor Boys boss Paul Jewell said: "Connor signing a new deal until 2014 won't stop all the speculation, but it shows that we are committed to him, and he is committed to us. "It's good news. An awful lot is spoken about him, and he has done terrifically well. I hope he continues to produce the goods and be where he wants to be with us - Utopia.''

Jewell - whose side host Crystal Palace on Saturday - admitted that the new contract will not stop speculation surrounding the teenager, but hopes that he remains at Ipswich for at least another season or so.

He added: "I'm not looking to sell Connor Wickham, and I don't think Connor Wickham is looking to leave, but if someone came in with a silly offer and he wanted to go, we would have to listen to it.

"But that would be the same for any player. There's no good keeping players if they are not happy, but that doesn't mean to say we would just let anyone go out of the door just because they got the hump. It would have to suit us, and I think at the moment the best place for Connor Wickham is at Ipswich.''

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.