Aston Villa edging closer to Wigan ace Charles N’Zogbia
Saturday 23rd July 2011, 11:29AM BST.
Charles N’Zogbia’s move to Villa is a step closer today after Wigan chairman Dave Whelan resigned himself to losing the winger.
The French wide-man has been omitted from the Wigan squad which travelled to Austria as they continue their pre-season preparations with crunch talks over the deal expected to take place over the weekend.
“The team have gone to Austria today but he hasn’t gone,” said Whelan.
“Charles is a great lad to have around the club. If we do lose him, and we may well do, because he has expressed a desire to move on, we will miss him enormously. But he is a great asset for any football club who wants him.
“He only has 12 months left on his contract and I would love to keep him but we have to be sensible and if we get a decent offer, and Charles wants to go, as usual I will honour what the player wants and let him go.
“I have always asked for £10m and hopefully we will get it and he will move on and be happy.”
To read our stories in full, log in to the premium 24 website.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
sorry E&S and all Villa fans but this is old news. Dave Whelan said three weeks ago that he was resigned to losing Nzogbia because he has one year on his contract and they cant afford the sort of package they need to keep him at Wigan.
Villa should not take too long in meeting the asking price as it is an excellent deal.Nzobia is as good if not better than downing.
They also may get drawn into a bidding war if someone else decides to come in for him.
Report abuse
The more time goes on the more I wonder at the competence/experience of paul faulkner, my opinion is he is alittle out of his depth at this level.
Zog is worth twice the 10m being asked and has a good ‘sell on’ potential. he is also a much better player than Downing will ever be.
If Faulkner screws this up I really think he should resign
Mike
Report abuse
I know what you mean, I keep thinking what the _ _ _ _ are they doing?!!! (the top people at Villa). This is ridiculous, yes Wigan have asked for more money but only 9% more, one million. In premier leauge terms this is only a little and especially when you consider how much we just got for Downing.
I guess Zoggy is better than Downing but not “much” better, that’s harsh on Downing, mate ! For a start, look at how many goals they scored in the league last season, almost identical. And Downing made more crosses than any other player last season, and many of them were accurate.
Report abuse