Bosmans

[KevinGage]

I doubt we'd go to that amount. Ireland was the last gasp IMO. N'Zogbia is probably on a good whack but he came from wigan remember - they wouldn't have been paying him the earth. Given, given (heh) his age, again wouldn't have been on mega wages

Ireland wasn't the last gasp as we signed bent after him, who's our highest earner.  As for CNZ, just because he was at Wigan on what was probably a relatively low wage does not mean he won't be asking for parity with our better earners when coming here.  I'd be quite confident he's on at least £50k a week.

50k max i'd say. I think with the moneybags years at Villa, a lot of people have lost track of what players get in the real world at other premiership clubs. MFH for instance had to halve his wages at least to go to Blackpool and we've all been moaning about paying Jenas' 40k wages, but at least he was player on the fringes of the england squad who was rated when he signed that deal, and we were paying arse like Sidwell more than that.  There's not really much point the club moaning about the wages some of our players are on and then signing someone for the same high wages is there. Just looks like complete hyprocisy.

You always need to take these things with a pinch of salt, but it was widely reported at the time that we were the only club who would match N'Zog's wage demands and pay the £60k.   Everton and Sunderland were keen, but couldn't go to that figure.

[PeterWithesShin]

It was reported Heskey was on 50K when we signed him from Wigan in 09, so it's highly possible N'Zog could have been on similar a couple of years later.

[Greg N'Ash]

And yet when he pulled out of the blose deal the papers claimed they wouldn't match his 50k a week demands. As you say, pinch of salt. I have heard that wigan's top earners are roughly on about 35-40k a week so i'm not sure whether we would have added 20k on top of that given the "wages are a problem" mantra of the board.

[PeterWithesShin]

A quick google brought up a few hits, most have similar figures so I assume he is in the 50-65K range.

Telegraph in mid June
"N’Zogbia’s wage demands of £60,000-a-week have forced many suitors to wait to see if a stalemate forces him to lower those demands, but Villa, keen for a big signing to appease fans following the sale of Downing and Ashley Young to Manchester United, are at least willing to get close to that figure."

Express a couple of weeks later
"Aston Villa chairman Randy Lerner is prepared to meet Charles N’Zogbia’s wage demands of around £65,000 a week."

[Greg N'Ash]

yeah, well i don't believe any of those figures tbh. newspapers always add another 10k on their wages at the best of times. If we were paying N'Nogbia 65k a week then Lerner and faulkner should shut up about the wage bill.