£12m for The Zog? (poll)

Posted on June 7th, 2011 | 35 Comments |

Wigan want £12m for N'Zogbia
Record transfer?
Mike Ashley will have to break his own transfer record if he wants to bring N’Zogbia to Newcastle United.

Whilst Wigan will let Charles N’Zogbia go to a Champions League club for £9m, they will only let him go to another Premier League club – including us – for £12m.

Apparently this is because Wigan believe that any non-Champions League club will be a direct competitor against them to beat the drop next season, which does tend to suggest that Wigan aren’t particularly optimistic about their chances in 2011/2012.

If Ashley did rob his piggy bank to pay for N’Zogbia it would be a new record for him, beating the £10.3m he paid Deportivo for Fabricio Coloccini in August 2008, and it would also be double what we sold him to Wigan for (although we did get Ryan Taylor in with the deal).

The Journal suggests that N’Zogbia would be offered a £55,000/week contract (£2.86m/year) which would probably be at the higher end of the sorts of wages Ashley is prepared to pay players.

Apparently Liverpool, Aston Villa and the Mackems are also still interested in the player, although it seems we have been the most active in pursuing him. And The Zog has made encouraging sounds via Twitty in relation to Newcastle lately, so we may well be his first choice.

The implication by the Journal is that it’s a case of either/or when it comes to Charles N’Zogbia and Gervinho and that Gervinho will only be seriously pursued if a deal for N’Zogbia falls through, although I’m sure that’s just speculation.

The Zog is currently sunning himself in the States and is apparently in no rush to make a decision so it could be a few weeks before we find out anything.

So what do you think? Cast your vote below.

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

35 Responses

  2. Why buy him?? 1 or 2 years time he is only going to get bored and we will lose more money, lets get players that want to stay and play!!

  3. I voted No!

    He’s a petulant little prick who couldn’t wait to jump ship as soon as he saw the wheels coming off last time.

    I’d rather put the money to a contract for Barton!!

  4. I don’t think he’s worth that much but I would maybe offer them £9m plus Raylor in exchange… lol

    Tbh, I think we probably need Gervinho more than we need another left winger, as we already have Jonas & Fergie, plus HBA can play on both wings, so we need a striker more imo!!

  5. Of course…..i realise that that may have sounded ridiculous as ships don’t have wheels….but you get my drift i hope lol

  6. Dont care how good he thinks he is, I dont want him back.
    Also I dont think even Ashley is dumb enough to pay £12M
    He is still a miserable moody git who insists he wants to play in the middle, not wings, where we dont need him.
    No thankyou. I would rather waste that money on someone else.

  7. I don’t want N’Zogbia back knowing his disgusting attitude and especially at that ridiculous price!! Go for Marvin Martin, Gervinho or Boudebouz instead of that fool. Some people have very short memories.

  8. @ Scott,

    I agree with what you say.

    I also think that 12mill is a lot of money. Besides which why should we pay more just because Wigan are not confident of staying up. It seems a stupid reason for us to pay more for a player! It like us doing them a favour for thier player.

  9. personaly i dont think we wil lget any of them at all. i cant see ashley spending any where near 10 million quid on any player. he just wont do it. gervinio now has a preference for arsenal if stories are true. we migth get cabaye or whatever he is called as bartons repalcement. plus this 1 million bargin bin job as left back to cover for jose going to liverpool for ten million.

  10. £1M is hardly bargain bin.
    Swansea only paid £150K.
    Now thats a bargain.

  11. On principal ( are there principals in the football business?) we shouldn’t even entertain whelan’s divvy notion that champs league teams get a better deal, why, cos they’re richer or something, WTF?
    This is a new twist in the dumbassed minds in football owners!

    :)

  12. Chris ‘Anti-Ashley’ chisholm has spoken, we’ll not pay over 10m for any player,,,, aaaaarrrrrrhhhhhhh so fecking what, as long as we bring in decent players like HBA & Tiote, I don’t really care if they cost 10 bob or 10 million,….

    I await the end of the trasnfer window & look back to what youve been saying with the hope that we actually do spend millions on players & you can then crawl back under the stone you came from,….

  13. some say..he wonts to go to arsenal or city…well they said the same about ben arfa..he had already made his mind up he was coming here..but different stories on here every day..about him going here or their..he was just playing hard ball with them to come here…never thought we would have him at newcastle…so any body slags off we wont buy any1..are just stupid..we are going for players who wouldnt go any were else..if given the chance apart from champs football are willing to come 2 newcastle 1 reason most of them us fans…

  14. Is like to see him back as long as the price wasn’t too high, and 12 million is. He’s certainly not the same player we sold, he’s come on leaps and bounds as a player since then. Which begs the question: when we kept hearing about his exciting potential, he never quite lived up to it at the toon. So how does a small team like wigan, with a smaller coaching staff and far worse facilities, manage to bring him on so much further than we did? Also, all this talk about gervinho as our new striker… Yes I’d love to see him come here, but what most people seem to misunderstand on these blitz, is that gervinho is predominantly a wide man. He has played as a winger for almost his entire career, not as a striker. So while he’s a great player, and we probs won’t get him anyway, I think its strange that everyone is getting so excited about the prospect of gervinho the centre forward.

  16. According to sksports, Wigan star Charles N’Zogbia says he wants to join an ambitious club who will be challenging for honours. Not Newcastle then.
    Phew !

  17. scott,
    the only thing wigan did differently with zog is play him regularly, that keeps hm on side, that’s the main reason he wangled a move from us, regular first team football.
    He still gets caught in possession like he always did, he has improved his tenacity like, but he shows what he always did imv.
    Is he worth £12m just cos we’re not sitting at the top table?
    What a weird concept!

    :)

  18. lot of players are last 12 months of their contracts.so these teams like are selfs wont let them go on the cheap..like enrique..

  19. Is it not mental to sell a player for 6million, who every day told us arsenal, real madrid, chelsea etc etc, and who had a horrible attitude, to buy him back for 12 million. All he will do is bitch and moan, he was a twat when he was here the first time, and still is.

  20. toon69@12…….lol lol… oh so sorry for not thinking the sun shines out of ashleys ar5e lollol…Yes, if we spend any money i will be truly pleased and suprised. I am not just talking crap cos i want to.i wish i coudl say that ‘look to ashleys previous windows, he has always backed us’ and that sort of thing. The point is though, its the opposite. look to his previous windows and ye shall see the future.
    maybe you should go on the stepford wives toon blog so that you can all sit in your litlte utpoia loving all things ashley.

  21. 19… we wont buy zogs jimbob, not at 12 million quid. i would say only defo is that 1 million quid jobby as joses repalcement. everythting else is just waffle by papers or agents trying to work an angle for their clients.

  22. I think there should be another criterion applied to our transfer policy: only buy players that smile when they score.

    Think about that. The faces of our current squad when they score; it’s like a kid at Christmas. Then you see players from other teams who scowl, slap their chests like gorillas or point to the name on their shirt. Arseholes like that can stay in fekkin Wigan as far as I’m concerned.

    Zog has become a really exciting player, but unless he can look less like he was weaned on onions pickled in piss when he scores, I don’t want him in our changing room.

  24. Craig I agree, We wont spend 10 million + on a player, that is not a bad thing though, there are good players at very good prices all over europe, anything in the premiership is way to over priced. I dont think we will get the big names, like ive said for the past two weeks, why would we? Why would gervinho come here, would anyone swap the chance to play in europes elite competition? We are not a top team yet, we are not even a top 6 team but if it is true, and we are trying to get the gervinhos and gameiros that in itself is a good thing.

    I find it amazing that, not necessarily this blog, but more other blogs, that something positive on twitter is true, but something negative in the mail (gervinho) is a lie! The only reason the transfer speculation is busy so far is because twitter has got bigger this year. Most of the news we hear is a load of crap.

  25. craig chisholm,it gets on my a**e,when people have a pop,because we say something critical against mike ashley.personally all i can go on concerning our esteemed owner,is his previous conduct during transfer windows etc.yes we can forgive him some of his rickets,in the past as he was new to the game.
    all i have seen mike ashley do since he arrived,is turn profit in every window except one.that in it’s self isn’t a crime,but no one has ever been adequately replaced imo.yes there is scope for him to redeem himself,but will he?me personally,i’m not willing to take a leap of faith on a man,who is a proven liar,in a court of law.there is just no trust there what so ever,so i say to you mr ashley,give us a reason to trust you,that’s all the fans want.

  26. Didn’t Ashley pay £10.3 for Colo…now if my maths are correct that’s over £10m Craig?!? I think we’ll spend over £10m on a player but it depends which player.

    Is N’Zogbia worth £12m is another question & imnit convinced he is…

  27. trojan… exactly. i am not doom and gloom as some would suggest. i like stats, and i like history. why…because they cant lie. the present can tell us anything (pardew)… but with ashley turning near on 60 million in black on players sold over that bought, and looking at previous windows and like you say… admittign in court he lies to us to shut us up… you have to reserve some sort of doubt as to weather he will ever be any different. i think he wont. i am not after any big names or even any flash spending. if anyone can cast their mind back to the end of the season and also many times since, i have always said i would be happy keeping the squad we have, signing up jose etc etc adn adding just one striker of proven quality. i would be hsappy with that.
    What i know, not fear.. .but know will happen is that jose wil lgo, as will barton, and we will offload smith, campbell, kuqui, ranger, and one or two others, reduce the wages significantly , bring in more in player sales and buy cheaper on lower wages. that is exactly how its going to work. it baffles me why anyone thinks it will be any different. i am not bothered either and am not moaning. i just accept it for what it is. i wil lstill have my new tops and keep my season ticket just like the rest. i figure that on its own entitles me to say ashley is a wanka!

  28. 26.. yeah he did witters but that was back in the begining of time with us and he offset it with milner out for 12 million. for us to buy a 10 million player now menas we have to sell one for 10 too. if we can do that then he may buy a 10 million one. but in fact, what will he have done? will he have soent 10 million?? no, he will have spent nothing wont he.

  29. Craig…maybe we’re funding out what no capital outlay really means? I take your point but it’s not an all bad strategy…it will have it’s pros & cons. Similarly so will paying out huge sums & massive wages with the banks money…

  30. Trojan – fair point @25. Ashley has ‘previous’ but it hasn’t been all bad, and recent evidence does suggest that he will stick to the clear strategy they have. Trouble is, we won’t always like it. As you say – it’s up to him to prove it now. I think he will, but perhaps not in the way some would like. I’d rather stay in the black and just keep improving, rather than blowing £40m and ending up like the scum and many others. Basically fu*ked.

    Craig: ” i would be happy keeping the squad we have, signing up jose etc etc adn adding just one striker of proven quality.”

    Sorry to be a bit direct, but I’m glad you’re not making decisions for the club if that’s true!

  31. whumpie… the only reason i say that is cos we all know we will be weakened come the start of the new season from what we were on january 01st. The best chance fro us keeping a hal decent sqaud is to not sell what little we have now, aka jose etc.

  32. So Enrique has had one good season in a dross league and three quarters of one in the prem. All of a sudden he appears to be too good for our club. If he had been good enough when he first rolled up perhaps Zog could have played in his proper position and we wouldn’t have lost him. Chew on that food for thought!

  33. It wont be Ashley’s fault if Barca come sniffing around Jose and then make an offer for him.
    That would be fair enough.
    But would he then reinvest the money on a decent replacement…..Errrr no, not a chance.
    Expect this deal to be completed Aug 31st 5:59 pm ish.

  35. Wigan seem determined to play games.

    All this talk about not selling to rivals is a bit much. Sell or don’t sell, don’t make a big song and dance about it.

    P.S. Weren’t most of Wigan’s “rivals” were relegated?