AFTER letting one of football's hottest properties walk away from the County Ground for nothing, Swindon Town are determined to cash in on their latest teenage talent.

Former Town centre of excellence winger Theo Walcott, pictured, was allowed to join Southampton four years ago.

Now Chelsea head a list of suitors willing to pay up to £2million for the 16-year-old England youth international.

But Walcott isn't the only starlet the Premiership champions elect have an eye on.

A 13-year-old Town defender who the club do not wish to name at this stage is another Chelsea target.

The super-rich Blues have made an initial offer for the youngster but Swindon don't want to be stung again and are holding out for the best deal possible.

Head of youth development Iffy Onuora said: "We've got some good players coming through the centre of excellence here and several have been courted by a lot of big clubs.

"We had Theo Walcott as a 12-year-old but we let him go to Southampton and Chelsea have bid £2million for him.

"We had our fingers burnt there and we don't want to let that happen again."

After Chelsea's initial offer for Town's new prodigy was turned down, manager Andy King suggested a pre-season friendly with the star-studded Londoners a game likely to generate up to £250,000 in gate receipts.

Town hope to have a positive response within a fortnight, though Chelsea may have their mind on other things this week ahead of the Champions League clash with Liverpool.

Onuora added: "Chelsea made us a financial offer a compensation figure and we went back and asked for more.

"We were in the realms of thrashing out a deal for compensation when the manager suggested we push for a pre-season game.

"But Chelsea are a bit busy this week. They've got a couple of big games coming up apparently!

"They will probably want to get the second leg of the Champions League semi-final out the way before they start thinking about little old Swindon!

"So we're looking at a time scale of a couple of weeks before they get back to us with a decision.

"It maybe that they have already decided their pre-season fixtures as we have to a certain extent, but we do still have dates available."