Aston Villa sign Charles N'Zogbia (Reply#1151)

[Villafirst]

I think we are going to get gazumped on this one...Appy Arry, Golum, King Kenny and Potatoface Bruce will all be looking at what is happening. Villa are doing the donkeywork on this and could get caught out at the last minute .

Agree, this has the hallmarks of the Robbie Keane saga. Anyone rember the Dean Saunders signing? Liverpool wanted £2.3M and Dadly offered £2.1M. Big Ron had to go on the pitch in the Palace home game to re-assure the fans. Deadly coughed up the extra £200K to seal the deal - Deano was a great signing. I have the same gut feeling if we can sign N'Zogbia - he's excellent. Sooner or later someone will pay the £10M and we'll look idiots. I think we look so short of quality in the squad right now, so this deal is crucial!

[Greg N'Ash]

don't think he's worth 10m personally. 9m is pushing it. Looking at his 1 good game in 10 record i wouldn't be particualry perturbed if he turned up at spurs

[Rick_avfc]

What understanding did we have for 9 million??

Previous bid being accepted last season from Blues.  Also, according to a reporter in the Sun (Dean Scoggins), the player understood that £9m would be enough for him to move to Villa but DW now wants £10m.  I'm just going on what this reporter tweets on twitter.

The player understood?

Bugger me I wouldn't trust most players to be able to understand the basics of colouring in.

Was there a 9 million clause in his contract?

Yes the player and agent understood that £9m would be enough as this was accepted last time and he had longer lleft on his contract.
And there has been no talk of a release clause in his contract otherwise this would have been mentioned.

[VILLA MOLE]

Absolutely you cant get a mars for that £££

If I go to a shop and want a Mars bar and it has a price of 50p clearly labelled do I offer the shopkeeper 45p and hold out until he accepts my price because the sell by date is in 12 months time?

Crappest analogy ever?

Yes it is you would never get a mars bar for 50p
[/quote]

[UsualSuspect]

The player and his agent understood.

Nothing the a bit of assumption!

So that confirms that Whelan is doing sod all wrong

[Rick_avfc]

The player and his agent understood.

Nothing the a bit of assumption!

So that confirms that Whelan is doing sod all wrong

Didnt say Whelan was doing anything, just that he is being a prick!

[UsualSuspect]

I think Whelan has been above board.

Nzogbia and his agent assume he can leave for 9 million because that was a fee agreed with blues a year ago and it isn't in writing

Whelan says 10 million and he's on his bike.

[Concrete John]

don't think he's worth 10m personally. 9m is pushing it. Looking at his 1 good game in 10 record i wouldn't be particualry perturbed if he turned up at spurs

By my reckoning, those 1 in 10s must have been something special to get to 9 goals and 8 assists in the PL last term.  Considering 90% of the games he was crap, of course.

I'm now of the opinion that it's decision time for us; either pay £10m or move on.  Granted, we could already have moved on, but the longer it drags the more it a) has the potential to go tits up and b) messes about our pre-season plans.

Shit or get off the pot time. 

[UsualSuspect]

don't think he's worth 10m personally. 9m is pushing it. Looking at his 1 good game in 10 record i wouldn't be particualry perturbed if he turned up at spurs

By my reckoning, those 1 in 10s must have been something special to get to 9 goals and 8 assists in the PL last term.  Considering 90% of the games he was crap, of course.

I'm now of the opinion that it's decision time for us; either pay £10m or move on.  Granted, we could already have moved on, but the longer it drags the more it a) has the potential to go tits up and b) messes about our pre-season plans.

Shit or get off the pot time. 

Exactly

Whelan is doing nothing different to us with Downing.

Let's not forget that we have had to pay Small Heath compensation for nicking their manager. people in glass houses etc

[Cracker1234]

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has warned Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish against playing a waiting game for Charles N’Zogbia, and admitted he can’t understand why its Premier League rivals are refusing to match his £10 million asking price.

In an exclusive interview with Goal.com, sports retail tycoon Whelan has told McLeish to forget about signing N’Zogbia for anything less than £10m this summer, even though he accepted a £9m bid from Birmingham for the player when the Scot was in charge at St Andrews last year.

A defiant Whelan is refusing to budge over prized asset N’Zogbia amid reports that the former Newcastle player will go on strike and refuse to train in an effort to force through a move away from the DW Stadium as the transfer saga took another twist.

McLeish has earmarked N’Zogbia as the replacement for Stewart Downing following his £20m move to Liverpool but in the light of that business Whelan insisted that buying his player for half that price would amount to “stealing”.

Whelan told Goal.com: “Aston Villa are still offering £9m and I want £10m. They offered nine, and I said 'no thanks, you will have to make it 10 and then you can talk to him'. Other clubs are interested so there is no way I will be going down to nine million.

“We said £10m and I am not going to let him go for a penny less. They have got £20m for Downing and they would be stealing N’Zogbia for 10 million. Stealing him. He is the best wide player in the Premier League without question so I can’t understand what they are doing.

“Last year we accepted £9m from Birmingham when Alex McLeish was their manager very late on in the summer transfer window and he thinks he is going to do the same again this time around, but he isn’t.”

North-east rivals Sunderland and Newcastle, as well as Everton, have been linked with the former Le Havre player who is out of contract at the end of next season, but Whelan revealed that neither have tabled bids for the 25-year-old.

Whelan continued: “Lots of clubs will be interested but all I look at is who is offering money and who has put a bid in. Sunderland as yet have not put a bid in. I do not know whether Newcastle are interested or not because they have not put an offer in.

“I would like to extend his contract so he would stay at Wigan because I rate him so highly but I don’t think he will stay. However, we will have to wait and see.”

Yahoo via Goal.com

[Concrete John]

Notice it's always Whelan coming out in the press with stories?  What does that say to you?  To me, it says he's desperate to sell as he can't afford to lose him for nothing and Martinez's spending is dependent on it.  If it was just a case of refusing our offer then that would be it, but he NEEDS us to come back in and is desperately trying to keep the deal alive.

And he's naming the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland to try and coax them into bidding as he's getting scared we won;t come back with an improved offer.

If I was Mcleish/Randy I'd leave it a week and leak several stories about other wingers to the press.  He'll be bricking it then. 

[UsualSuspect]

Everton are the team to worry about if Arsenal bid 15 odd million for Jagielka, Nzogbia will be off like a shot

[Rick_avfc]

Something doesnt add up with this whole story.  Why wont we match the £10m quoted by DW?  I personally now think that that there maybe a series of add ons after the £10m fee that Villa dont agree on.  The noise seems to be generated from one end and that end is Wigan. 

[PeterWithesShin]

Wigan want 10, we offer 9. I'm sure there is a compromise there if only I knew what it was.....

[villa `cross the mersey]

Offer them £8.5m and watch the little **** start squirming.