Nicole has been a bit quiet recently, however she has produced this article on the ongoing saga that is our chase of Charles N’Zogbia. She has published it on her own blog, however I have permission to re-produce it here.
The public pursuit of one Mr Charles N’Zogbia has been almost like an elaborate game of kiss chase for Blues. Since January, Blues have fairly publicly courted their admiration of the talented Wigan wingman, and he seems to be the man earmarked by McLeish to add width to what is a very narrow team.
I don’t mind public pursuits of players. It gives fans something to get excited about sometimes, a juicy name here or there generates interest. We’ve not been alone in chasing players, Manchester City, backed with financial clout, tracked and got their man James Milner.
What is starting to annoy me ever so slightly though, is the public knock backs. From what I’ve read, is that Wigan and their Chairman Dave Whelan have a definite price for N’Zogbia. I’ve gathered that this must be around £10 million, and after our £8 million approach was knocked back, I would have thought that with the new backing of the clubs owners, we’d of gone back in their and matched their offer.
At the end of the day, I see it a little bit like this. Some things you have to buy in your own lives, you’d class as essentials. For me, I’d class pants as an essential (although one man I dated did not class pants as an essential – I did question how he could handle wearing jeans but I digress). Anyway, if I’m in desperate need of pants, I can shop around and see what pants I can get for my money. However, I can’t go to a shop, go to the till with the underwear I require and only offer 80% of the asking price. I could possibly negotiate, ask whether taking out a store card would allow me further discount, but essentially, I would need to pay the asking price.
After writing that all out, maybe it’s not quite the same. However, in an age where fans seem to be comparing old board to new board, is there essentially anything different in the way they are supposedly conducting transfer dealings? The old board were criticised for offering less than the asking price in an attempt to make it appear as if they were interested in a higher calibre of player. If we have the money, why don’t we enter into a negotiation with Wigan in which they will react seriously too, and where we might see N’Zogbia seriously consider a move to the Midlands.
Perhaps I’m just just reacting to new speculation that a further bid has been rejected, and maybe I should let things just play out for the next few days. In the Milner transfer, it was protracted over a number of weeks, bogged down with discussions over fees, player swaps and compensation.
With only a week to go though, messageboards will be tense as the clock starts ticking. Will the elusive wideman ever appear at St. Andrews, or will the last few days turn into the Zog Factor of massive disappointment? Watch this space.
Even if one is a billionaire one still wants value for money. Is Zog worth more than £8million? If they won’t sell for that then try more, but nobody in their right mind would offer such a high figure as £10 million to start off with.Maybe in the end,if AM feels they need him so much they may have to pay it. But please don’t let your dissatisfaction with the previous Board spill over onto this one.They are doing their best & I’m sure would just love to sign him.
I understand where nicola is coming from to be honest we had let some of our recent targets drag on and on to the point where the player go’s somewhere else! I do prefer this board to the previous and wouldn’t like to draw comparisons but we still dont have a sugar daddy thats for sure.
N’zogbia ain’t worth £8 Mill let alone £9 Mill. He might be to Wigan but they’re more desperate than we are. For BCFC’S sake Eck move on there are other players that are not as over priced as he is.
Any club paying more than £6 Mill for N’zogbia must have money to throw away. I’d rather bring on Valles with the support of a good left back than blow money on overrated N’zogbia.
Stop making our club look ridiculous with these people and approach a club, that wants to sell, for
a player that wants to play for us. If you can’t find any, stick with what we’ve got and make sure our players give their best; I believe that would put us mid table again. Ignore the fans who think we have to spend stupid money just to keep them happy.
It seems Big Eck will go pantless than drop his load for the french dribbler.
Amen to him for showing a fiscal common sense when dealing with over priced
prima donnas. 9+million? Really Whelan!
I agree that he is simply not worth 10 million and 6 million seems fair. I also agree that Valles could be a good solution to our lack of width.
Guys, I think that talk about what Nzogbia is worth and what constitutes a fair price is somewhat missing the point. Players rarely move these days for a price that is a true reflection of their worth, even allowing for the inflated market. Is Milner worth £26m + Stephen Ireland ? The point is that McLeish identified Nzogbia as a key acquisition months ago and it is obvious that Wigan want a figure close to £10m. Therefore the only decision Blues have to make is whether they are prepared to pay over the odds for a key acquisition. I would rather this decision had been made weeks ago. It does more damage to the way the club is perceived to have this drag on for weeks and then miss out ( to no great surprise ) just before the window shuts and then see the player who has been dangled in front of the fans’ noses move to a Sunderland or a West Ham.
It’s time to put up or shut up. We all seem to be agreed that Mr Charles is not worth £10m but is it worth over paying to get a player who could really enhance the team ? In my opinion yes but I won’t hold it against the club if they feel the answer is no. What does bother me though is being strung along with the pretense that we might push the boat out. I mean, to up the offer from £8m to “somewhere close to £9m” is quite laughable really. If the board are serious then go in at £9.5m and really test their resolve.
What we’ve all got to remember is that a player who is really worth £10m probably wouldn’t come to Blues at the moment and would actually command a fee of around £14m in this market.
Good article, blues have been known for stubborness, which i think is a good thing. dave whelan has always been a greedy git, we are known in this country to hagle, if you buy a second hand motor your not gonna want to pay the full asking price, you want to haggle, as its a second hand car, which is what ( technically ) Nzogbia is, a second hand footballer, a good one though.
KRO
Nicole is right. Dave Whelan is not going to budge. He is a hard-nosed, uncompromising, Northern businessman. He is also an ex-professional football player and knows how the game works. Either pay up or move on. I doubt that our so called improved offer will get the job done I’m afraid.
KRO SOTV 🙁
Ted – you say 6million is fair and it probably was when latics bought him for close to 8 mill when he couldnt get on newcastles team!! But to wigan he is worth much more because he is our only match winner, the only player that links mid to att. To us 10 mill is far far way off our valuation.
I know that the deal is NOT dead, at least not as I write this. Someone is trying to cause trouble somewhere.
My information is from a contact at the club.
Kev according to Martinez on ssn the deal ain’t born yet, let alone dead.
This is all getting a bit silly. Martinez is all bent out of shape because of the public airing of our revised offer for a player who has according to widespread press coverage expressed his wish to move. If we have upped our offer why is Martinez suggesting that the present offer is LESS than the one they received in May? What possible purpose could be served by us lowering our offer having already been rebuffed? I don’t know whether this is just plain stupidity on somebody’s part or it’s all just so called mind games; if it is the latter then the minds at work are very small indeed. Just officially accept or reject the offer and move on rather than wasting the world’s trees with speculative column inches.
KRO SOTV