Toon wants The Zog back whilst Barton and Enrique face contract decisions

Posted on May 16th, 2011 | 21 Comments |

Charles N'Zogbia - Toon transfer target?
The Zog to return?
Newcastle United are allegedly after Charles N’Zogbia whilst contract negotiations complicate the situations with Barton and Enrique.

The weekend press contained a lot of football gossip as per usual. Some of it’s probably true but most of it is likely to be nonsense, so please don’t shoot the messenger!

One of the things reported is that there’s been a bit of a stall on Barton’s contract with the 28 year-old wanting a 4 year contract as opposed to the 2 year one offered to him in January. Compromising on a 3 year contract might be the way to go if Joey will accept that, which I don’t think is too much of a risk as he’d still only be 31 at the end of the contract.

On the subject of contracts, The Sun reckons Jose Enrique will be offered a 5 year contract and a decent pay rise if he agrees to stay at Newcastle. I’m not sure how The Sun knows that because all Alan Pardew has had to say on the matter is:

“He’s not indicated to myself or to Derek what his intentions are. We’re still optimistic of course. I’d love to keep him. Absolutely love to keep him.

“But I think we have to be on our guard because there are so many noises about him. I think that’s the nature of the business we’re in.”

Were there shades of Keegan in that comment? “I’d love it, absolutely love it if he stays”.

However, the bad news on the left back situation is that Newcastle have allegedly had a £5M bid for Toulouse’s Cheikh M’Bengue rejected. The player himself has confirmed the Toon’s interest in him, saying:

“It’s pleasing. I have heard about it but the club have refused the offer.

“At the moment I’m not too bothered, I have an agent to look after that and he looks after my interests very well.

“We must see what happens.”

I wonder if Newcastle are planning to try and get M’Bengue regardless of what happens with Enrique. It certainly seems that way given that they’ve made a confirmed offer for the player with Enrique’s future still undecided. Either that or the club is fairly confident that Enrique will be on his way.

More gossip suggests that Newcastle are planning a £6m swoop to bring Charles N’Zogbia back to the club, although didn’t Wigan refuse a £10m offer from us in January? Of course if Wigan end up relegated – something that will no doubt please Ashley, given his spats with Dave Whelan – then it’s fair to assume that The Zog will be more amenable to a move to ensure he’s playing Premier League football and Wigan may need to save on the costs of one of their star players.

N’Zogbia originally left Newcastle after falling out with Joe Kinnear when the manager called him ‘insomnia’, allegedly by mistake. Originally N’Zogbia expressed his desire to leave by saying:

“After four years at Newcastle, I want to reach a higher level of ambition. I don’t think that is possible here.”

Which is odd given that he then moved to Wigan. I know we were having a rough patch but I wouldn’t generally link Wigan to the phrase ‘a higher level of ambition’. Anyway, he later apologised for that statement but said that he wouldn’t play for Newcastle again while Joe Kinnear was manager. Oh happy days!

Apparently we’ll have to fight off interest from Birmingham and the Wearside baboons if we want him.

Usual disclaimers apply to this load of codswallop and I hope you all had a good weekend.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

21 Responses

  1. enrique will leave and barton will stay. thats my gut feeling on that one. i am so bored of it all now that i just dont care, stay or go, just make your mind up ffs. life goes on. i do hope that for the first time ever under fat boy, that we can do our dealings very early in the window and then call it a day and prepare for the new season. Wil l that happen…. ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

  2. Anything above 8m for zog and I would not be happy, remember Fergurson is having a very good run right now and it will be disrespectful and a shame to let zog walk in the 1st team straight, yeah zog is a brill player but even if he did join, I couldnt see him spend more than 2 seasons at the toon..

  3. The Zog goes missing too often in games, and can you imagine the reaction should he fcuk up? Give Fergie a chance I say and as far as players wanting to leave, as soon as they say they do we should do all we can to facilitate their exit – for the correct fee of course. I also am bored of the speculation already – wish we could stick to facts rather than rumours

  4. We need exiting players who have pace and can make things happen but at what cost. Hasn’t The Zog burnt his bridges with us ‘..I want to be near France and my family…’?

    However, there may be more substance to this rumour as Pardew said that they had made a bid for The Zog after Carroll was sold but where given a ludicrous price.

    If it does happen I would like to be a fly on the wall at the negotiations between Whelan and Ashley. Fireworks.

    King Zog was king of Albania who I understand had some very attractive daughters who everyone called ‘The Zogettes’. Sounds like a Motown band.

  5. No thanks to Zog. Talented, but a complete knob. Agitating for a move long before Kinnear came in, because he was attracting interest from Arsenal. Hopefully he goes abroad. Screw him.

  6. I wouldn’t bother with an ex like.
    Decent player on his day, tricky n’all.
    Though he does get caught in possession a fair bit & sometimes goes missing in action.
    A player we got for nowt, with months/years of wrangling, buy back for a couple of mill, we got £6m + Raylor, so we’d have to pay a lot to actually spend decent money on him.
    But still, na!
    There must be others.
    Probably a ‘usual’ rehash job for some journ with no stories?

    Ooo!
    Nile’s been a naughty boy.
    :)

  8. Instead of blaming N`Zogbia, how bout the asshole who caused the problem Kinnear ?
    Besides there was chaos at the time with Ashley unloading anyone willing to go.
    There were some with fat contracts who refused to move, so when you guys start name calling get your facts to-gether, nothing is exactly as it seems.
    I would have N`Zogbia back in a heartbeat, good player, can score, pass, got pace, can take on defenders, just the kind of player we need.
    Either him or Ireland, oh, oh, I forgot you guys dont like him either for some personal reason.
    Listen, you got to get over this personality thing, what we need at this club are good footballers, not badge kissers.

  9. How chuck,
    r green showed his colors yesterday, huh?
    Threw the hands, wham down!
    You only like him cos he allowed the U.S. to get a draw in the world cup.
    :)
    It was JFK’s doing, getting shot of Zog, but he is a whiner though.
    ;)

  10. Nice to see liverpoo get a taste of their own medicine on the pen inside/outside the box yesterday.
    :)

  11. Hey Clint !
    No missed that one (W/Ham), watched the Newcastle game then the Spurs vs Pool game, have to say i enjoyed the Chewsee N`cle. game, especially when the newcastle fans were doing the ole`s, while in possession.
    But back to the subject of goalies, still think we need help, dont think Krul has the making of a top stopper, he was responsible for flapping at the second goal and has looked shakey lately.
    Harper is ok but we have to have someone for the future, not so sure about Forster as I have`nt seen much of him.
    Was thinking we could include him in a deal to get Izaguirre from Celtic, but then there`s the possibility Enrique may stay ?
    Should be an interesting summer !

  12. chuck,
    Krul was definitely culpable for chelsea’s second mate, why he flapped at that?
    The Lads did great to come back at the death. Another great header by Saylor, good to see he’s shed a few pounds recently, he looks better/quicker for it.

    green let it roll right through him for wigan’s winner mate.
    That consigned wetspam to the championship. Though the whole team has been disjointed all season long.

    Krul has got some much needed experience this year, so that’s good, but he does ship more than Harper.
    i ain’t seen much of Forster either mate, he did win the league with norwich last season too like & they made it to the prem for next season too.

  14. The trouble with having two players with the same name is that it it plays on my obsessive compulsive disorder. I’m bad enough with two Taylors but with two Ameobis, I’d simply have to have them balanced in formation like:

    Ameobi – Taylor – Taylor – Ameobi

  15. Clint
    Yeah always thought Taylor was a decent CD, much better than Williamson, who as far as i am concerned is not PL quality, though i undrestand there are those who disagree.
    Taylor is dangerous on attacking set plays, hate to be a BSA fan, but we could do well to emulate his strategy on free kicks and corners, seems Bolton scored the majority of their goals from set pieces.
    Taylor looks a lot fitter and played hard, guess he wants to cement his position alongside Colo.
    Would like to see another CD brought in during the summer,wonder what are the chances of getting Boomsong back ?
    w

  16. I thought the kids did ok for us, would have liked to see more of Amoebi Jr.

    Love to see us make a bid for Nathan Dyer, have always rated him, has a touch of the Beardsleys about him.

  17. chuck,
    dunno if we need anymore CB’s like.
    Pity Sol didn’t pan out, but we have Kadar as well as Willo(who’s done fine for his 1st prem season).
    Saylor is better up top, bit raggedy at the back though & has blood rushes.
    Not bothered about defenders going up to score, especially if we’re hit on the break if the attack breaks down. They should defend first, attack if they can, but no unnecessary risks.
    But with a dearth of strikers, set pieces have pulled us through in the second half of the season.

  19. clint,he’s only taller than shola,due to that mane on top of his heed.he’s like aslan,oot of the narnia stories,he’s got some head of hair.

  20. chuck says:
    May 16, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    “Instead of blaming N`Zogbia, how bout the asshole who caused the problem Kinnear ?”

    Chuck, Bobby Robson used to be far worse for getting player’s names wrong, would you call him an “asshole” too? Besides, N’Zogbia’s excuse was probably a canard for a player who wanted out anyway.

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