Gus Poyet: I will sell Connor Wickham if he doesn't sign a new contract!

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet has warned striker Connor Wickham to sign a new contract or leave the club this summer.

Wickham has entered the final 12 months of the contract he signed when he joined the club from Ipswich for £8m in 2011. 

The England Under-21 international struggled for form during his first two seasons at the club. 

Poyet recalled the big striker from a loan spell at Leeds last season to help in Sunderland's relegation battle and he rewarded the Uruguayan manager with five crucial goals as the Black Cats stayed up. 

Wickham rejected a new deal with the club last month and Poyet has issued a stark warning to the 21-year-old.  

He needs to sign a new contract or we let him go – we sell him

Gus Poyet

He told the Sunderland Echo: “For me, Connor’s situation is clear. He needs to sign a new contract or we let him go – we sell him. There is nothing in between.

“He is an asset to the football club and we paid a lot of money for him.

“Last year, he was a key part of us staying up and he was very important. But he needs to realise that the club needs to look after the interests of the football club as well.

“I suppose that, one way or another, we are going to have an agreement.

“Which one of those is going to happen, I don’t know – it is not my job, that is [sporting director] Lee Congerton’s department.”