Charles N’Zogbia has been subject to a great deal of speculation this summer and has been linked to the likes of Sunderland, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle. Aston Villa were once thought to be favourites as they seek to replace Ashley Young but talk of such a move seems to have petered out. He’s also been linked strongly to his old club Newcastle, where I can’t help but feel that he’d be a hit once more.
It’s somewhat frustrating then that Wigan’s Owner has slapped a £20m price-tag upon N’Zogbia’s head. Speaking to The Sun, Dave Whelan said: “I see some players being sold for £20m or £30m and Zoggy’s better. We’ve had bids but they’re nowhere near our valuation”.
Whilst the papers and other sources have previously put an £8-9m price tag on his head, Wigan appear to be playing hardball and will look to get the best price possible out of the player. In some respects I understand. If he was British, it wouldn’t be too difficult to sell him for around £15-20m and when you look at the valuation of players like Jordan Henderson, it’s not hard to understand where Whelan is coming from.
Whilst Newcastle have a fair amount of cash saved up after selling Andy Carroll for £35m last January, I doubt that they’ll want to spend that kind of money on N’Zogbia. After all, for £20m you can go out into other European Leagues and find players with even more quality.
One thing that Whelan has failed to mention is that N’Zogbia only has 12 months available on his contract and should thus be available for a cut-price. That’s why Arsenal allowed Gael Clichy to go to Manchester City for just £6m and it’s also why Samir Nasri only has a £20m price-tag at the moment. To value N’Zogbia at the same amount as Nasri is just absurd.
Under the same logic, Newcastle should be holding out for £20m from Jose Enrique. What’s more, it’s clear that N’Zogbia wants to leave the club. To hold him back by placing an absurd price-tag on his head smacks of immorality.
N’Zogbia would arrive at Newcastle with a reputation after his behaviour last time he was at the club. You have to acknowledge, however, that he’s got the quality and a winning mentality (he almost single handedly kept Wigan up last season) to aid Newcastle as they build for the future. If Wigan make N’Zogbia available for a fair price then I hope Alan Pardew pursues his signature. If not, then Newcastle should steer clear.
Follow @ThePerfectPass on Twitter for details on all the latest updates and various football-related musings.
ThisisFutbol.com are seeking new writers to join the team! If you’re passionate about football, drop us a line at “thisisfutbol.com@snack-media.com” to learn more.
To have a peak at the top SEVEN available FREE TRANSFERS this summer, click here.
Or to have a look at 10 ways a football lover can spend this summer, click here!
Why not leave him at Wigan and pick him up on a free next season.
Not priced out as they cannot afford him, but they just are cheapskates and dont want to pay anyone big wages. They may snap on TDDay IF THEY HAVE NO-ONE else brought in by then.
The toon shud buy nzogbia for 10 mill he’s a fantastic player he’s just like a Ben arfa with them to attacking we will score loads of goals cumon the toon!!!
One point, N’Zogbia technically counts as British when it comes to the 25man squad rule as far I know as he was at Newcastle when he was 18.
Wigan need to sell him now to get money for him, a club would be stupid to spend more than 8-10million on him given his current contract status. The longer the transfer window goes and he’s not sold, Wigans position becomes weaker and they have to take what’s offered from whichever club. I guess it depends whether a club with money to burn wins or a club with a little more patience.
gorskino10.
who the feck u callin cheapskates??!!!
weve paid over the knocker for players too many times in the past, with a few exceptions such as shearer hba colo jose etc.
obviously your no toon fan or you would know that weve had 1 of the highest wage bills in europe until a couple of years ago.
£120000 a week for michael owen was too much even for sir alex. thats why hes on a pay as you play deal at stretford utd.
i for one dont think any player is worth 100000 a week. dicks like chelsea have blown the money in football through the roof. pricing the average fan out of the game.
infact do you even support a team? or are you just an armchair supporter with a big gob ?
Nasri scored 10 goals and got 1 assist, N’Zogbia scored 9 goals and got 7 assists in a poorer team. Nasri is 24, N’Zogbia is 25 but qualifies for the homegrown rule. They both have 12 months left on their contract. It doesn’t say we want £20m for him, but we’ll want a lot more than £9m for him if Nasri is valued so highly.
Zoggy value at 31 Aug 2011 – £6m
value at 1 Jan 2012 – £2m
value at 31Jan 2012 – £1m
value at 1 Feb 2012 – FREE
The ‘did it for a poorer team’ argument doesn’t necessarily work. It could just means that N’Zogbia was the only one creating for Wigan where Nasri was one of several creating/scoring so didn’t see as much of the ball. He didn’t play as may games either…
are you f–ing stupid, there is no 20m price tag anywhere, he’s just saying that zog is better than some of the 20m players which is completely true. my guess is wigan’s valuation is 10m and clubs are offering closed to 5-6m because his deal is running out.
but even at 10m zoggy is one of the steals of this years transfer market
20M for N’Zogbia!!! Hahahaha What is Whelan smoking! You can keep him m8! He certainly ain’t THAT good. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a year or two he’ll be worth that. It’s unfair to N’Zogbia that he has a chairman that is clearly mental sounds like our club lol With just 12 months in his contract we can get him for 6-8M in January maybe even less or free at the end of next season. It’s ridiculous the priced some clubs are demanding. Thanks to Liverfools this season this is the conscience now. It’s like Man City all over again. We don’t need N’Zogbia right now although I wouldn’t mind him tbh, I would very much prefer Marvin Martin or Boudebouz than him -I think we could even get them both for less than 20M!! lol