West Ham are likely to have another go at stealing Connor Wickham away from Sunderland.

But club bosses aren’t too confident they will get their man after being turned down flat with an opening bid of between £4m – £5m.

Despite the player being in the last year of his contract Sunderland are taking an extraordinarily hard line.

Gus Poyet hopes to team with fit again Steven Fletcher – who himself was an Irons target at one point.

A source told ClaretandHugh exclusively: “The club are likely to prepare another bid for the player but there’s not huge confidence Sunderland will sell.

“They turned down the first bid out of hand  which surprised our people but we are likely to go in and test the water at least one more.”