Crystal Palace have rejected Sheffield Wednesday's loan bid for striker Connor Wickham due to the size of the Owls' proposed wage contribution, a report from a print edition of The Sun on Sunday (19/01, p63) has claimed.

The Owls are said to be interested in bringing the striker to Hillsborough on a temporary basis until the end of the season, although it seems they are still some way apart on agreeing a deal with Wickham's current club.

According to the latest reports, Wednesday have offered to pay £12,000-a-week of Wickham's wages, a third of what he is currently on at Selhurst Park, with Palace reportedly demanding that the Championship side pay a larger contribution of the salary.

It is also thought that Wednesday will have to offload current striker Jordan Rhodes to another club for a large loan fee and significant loan fee if they are to afford a deal for Wickham.

Since joining Palace from Sunderland in the summer of 2015, Wickham has endured an injury-hit time at Selhurst Park, making just 49 appearances in all competitions, scoring 11 times.

There are 18 months remaining on Wickham's current contract with Crystal Palace, securing his future with the Eagles until the end of the 2020/21 season.

The Verdict

This is an interesting one.

With Wednesday apparently needing to offload Rhodes before they can bring Wickham in, it looks as though they are operating on a one in, one out basis here, and I'm not sure if that is something they really need to do.

Rhodes has shown with his hattrick at Nottingham Forest just last month that he is still capable of making an impact at this level, and a move for Wickham feels like something of a risk given his recent injury record and not exactly prolific goals return.

Indeed, with Steven Fletcher set to return from injury before the end of the season as well, I'm not entirely convinced they need to be spending as much as Palace are asking them to here.