Here is Bazza’s take on yesterday’s events. I’d be interested in your thoughts as Blues fans or even fans of teams N’Zogbia has played for.
It’s strange that as human beings we all get sixth sense about things on occasions. I had a strange premonition about this long running saga that for some time now I’ve been distinctly sceptical about. The club has spent the whole summer chasing after this player and when Will called me yesterday and asked if I’d heard the news I was at first pleased but as the afternoon wore on I couldn’t banish a nagging doubt about the whole thing. It just didn’t seem right and that doubt increased as the evening lengthened. Most deals once they are agreed between the clubs move on fairly rapidly and SKY News then repeats the story ad nauseum for the next 6-8 hours.
It appears that the clubs agreed the fee believed to be between £9-11 million but left ‘undisclosed’ for public consumption and that the player’s demands changed at the last minute. So as not to break the club’s wage structure, Birmingham City pulled out of the deal. If this is the case, the club are right to pull away from the agreement because whatever the actual details are there has been a breach of trust somewhere and when you are paying that kind of money to procure an employee; no business should proceed with lack of faith anywhere in the frame. I cannot believe that given the length of time this bit of kiss chase has gone on that part of the ‘due diligence’ that Alex McLeish bangs on about did not include some inkling from his agent as to the likely wage demands of the player should an offer for him be accepted.
In summary this is disappointing for all of us but the principles being upheld here by the club are right and proper and as a Blackburn fan on one of the blogs this morning pointed out; this could be a blessing in disguise for BCFC. It has left us still with the problem about the lack of pace out wide in our midfield but I would rather we went without than have someone come in who is prepared to go back on his word. We not only need players who possess talent and will enhance the profile of our club both on and off the pitch but we need players who want to play for Birmingham City Football Club. It would appear that in this case not all those criteria were fulfilled.
It is Charles N’Zogbia’s loss not ours.
KRO SOTV
Very True in every word,His Loss,Blues Gain in finding out before it was to late,could have been another Bent saga
Wigan fan here,
What I personally think has happened is that Birmingham was probably not his first choice if he moved away from us. Ask Newcastle fans and before he joined us He (or most probably his agent) said that Arsenal was his destination!!
Therefore the extra demands he made stinks of “well if this is the only club that I can move to then I want monetry compensation”.
A blessing in disguise, indeed. From all I have heard about Nzogbia, he is not the kind of model player you want in your dressing room. This may speed up the development of Nathan Redmond, who may be our only option for pace out wide this season (for all that McLeish has been talking about working with Valles to give him more explosive pace).
It will be a delicate balance between giving Redmond his head and protecting a young talent who is still a growing boy. I expect that we fans will be clamouring to see possibly the most exciting talent since TF (and he’s from Sheldon; TF was an ‘adoped’ boy from Plymouth), but we will probably be disappointed in how much game time he gets this season. I would urge fans to be patient, though. We played TF through injury after injury with pain killing injections, and I’m sure i didn’t help his career long term. Anyone remember the game at the Hawthorns where TF was carried off unconscious, held upside down on the sidelines until he came round and then sent back on? Or was I hallucinating?
The amount of players we have been in for now is becomeing very tiresome,like most blues fans i dont believe a word of this new board untill i see the player on the pitch.Large echo`s of sully and golds antics in the transfer market are comeing through loud and clear here,they must know what sort of money these players want before hand so what is the point of going for these players if you are not going to match their wages which the progessive clubs will do.They have had all summer now to buy better players,remember it was the board who said they had millions to invest which is clearly not the case.
Agree – N’Zogbia and/or his agent have been playing games. I just hope that other clubs also see this and avoid signing him. He is a good player, but as Big Eck has always said, he wants the players to join Blues for the right reasons. Money is important to players but I would draw the line at GREEEEEED! Well done Blues for pulling out. We can do without players like him. KRO KiwiBLUES SOTV
Eric
The deal was agreed – the financial requirements of the player and agent were known….
However they changed there “demands” once everything was agreed….
Bazza’s article sums it up to a tee!
Well dome Big Mac and the Board for sticking to your principles!