Archive for tag: Wigan interest in Wayne Routledge.

Wigan interest in Routledge. How about N’Zogbia the other way?

July 23rd, 2011 | 25 Comments |

Alleged Wigan interest in Newcastle's Wayne Routledge.
Swapsies?
Rumours abound that Wigan may be interested in Newcastle United winger Wayne Routledge. Could some sort of swap involving N’Zogbia be in the offing?

The Sun is rumouring that Wigan might be preparing a £2.5m bid for Wayne Routledge to replace Charles’ N’Zogbia if he leaves the club as expected. N’Zogbia has in fact not gone to Austria for pre-season yodelling practise along with the rest of the Wigan squad, thus creating some sort of expectation that his transfer out of Wigan is perhaps close.

Apparently a £9m bid for N’Zogbia by Villa was rejected by Wigan recently.

Maybe Ashley will quote a ‘special price’ of £5m for Routledge for non-Champions League contenders, rather like Wigan allegedly did for us when we first showed some interest in The Zog!

Rumours tend to snowball, so of course this particular one has resurrected our interest in N’Zogbia and plays to the idea of some sort of swap deal being arranged.

Personally I think that, even if we took £2.5m off the N’Zogbia’s price and gave Routledge to Wigan instead, it might still be seen as too expensive for another midfielder given that, presumably, some money will need to be kept back for a striker of some sort. I suppose there’s always the possibility that Ben Arfa could be used as a striker and another midfielder could be recruited in his place, although I tend to think we want to recruit an out-and-out striker as a priority. (more…)