Article: Steve Bruce should happily splash £10million on Charles N'Zogbia - Football, Sunderland

After reading the amount of posts on here about him, some now saying they don't want him because of the money and wages.

Well the way I look at at, we've just signed Connor wickham for 8 rising to 12 million, someone who's played 30 games at championship level, as unproven as you will get.

For 10 million we can sign a France international at 24/25 years old, proven to be a quality player at premiership level. Forget the time he has left on his contract, it's erelivant, we've just sold Jordan Henderson for 20 mill and can replace him with a player 10x the better for half the price.

Bruce saying it's become too expsensive? Well tell me Bruce where you can find a player equal to nzogbia for 10 million? Forget the wages, you pay good wages for good players. If the club has ambition then we sign him, if we Wang mid table then we dont.
It's common sense surely? It's a bargain.

 

you have got a point.

 

Problem is he only has 12 months on left on his contract and come January we could talk to him about signing for free. In any other situation he would be worth 15-20 million easily but at the moment Wigan want what they think is a fair price and we want what we think is a fair price. Its all about who blinks first but in my eyes Whelan is a stubborn sod who will not budge and would be happy to let his contract run out for free than sell him to us at a cut price deal.

 

I'm sorry but I have to disagree..Ten million seems fair enough, but if his wage demands are silly, then we should leave him well alone as it would only serve to cause unrest with the other players.

 

I must be one of the few on this board that really isn't that bothered. Yes, at times Zog has been a hell of a player, and I wouldn't be adverse to paying 10 million for him. But as a club I think we have to be very careful when it comes to smashing our wage structure, especially for players who have a history of being "disruptive".

For my opinion, Zog, as talented a footballer as he is, is inconsistent. I rarely see him perform at the level he is capable of week in week out, and he does tend to go missing through the season. I actually think he is very similar mentality wise to Kenwyn Jones.

If we get him great, as long as it doesn't compromise the structure, well being and harmony of the club and team. If we don't get him, to be honest, I won't be crying into my weetbix.

 

Fair points clockwork.

Only thing that worries me about he who shall not be named is his alleged excessive wage demands. Surely if oshea, brown, sees & gyan can fit into our wage structure he can?!?

 

If N'zog doesn't come off would anyone fancy a bid for Sinclair from Swansea??

 

Whilst I agree with some of your point, I wholeheartedly disagree with the bit I've bolded - If you pay a new player more than your existing squad you immediately create the possibility of disharmony in the squad - i.e. as much as he is quality - what about the lads that have stayed here for so long and kept us in the league and pushed us forward? If Zog get's 60-70k a week how much are we going to have to pay Sessegnon, Gyan etc. as once their agents know we're paying a player that much, they'll be banging on Bruces door asking for a payrise.

I think Zog would be a great signing but for 60-70k a week I think this is where Bruce means it's a bit rich. Saying "forget the wages" - If Bruce goes to Ellis Short and says "I'm signing this lad, he'll cost 10m up front then his wages. Foerget them as they don't really matter - we'll pay whatever he wants" how do you think Ellis will view that?? Good business or poor planning??

 

N'Zogbia would be a massive player for us. No doubts about it.

If he had 2 or 3 years contract then 10m would be a very, very good price however, we can sign him on a pre-contract in 5 months time and he could a player for us in 12 months for nowt.

I think a fair price would be 4m to 6m. His wage demands have taken on some kind of chinese whisper trait in recent weeks. 40k per week has risen to 70k per week (see above) and accusations of him being a greedy so and so has followed.

I think he will be looking for an increase on his 30k (reportedly) per week he is on at Wigan and if we were moving jobs so would we. If he wanted to go to Villa it would have been done. I dont know what Villa have offered but I dare bet it wont be 10m.


However, be under no illusion, this lad would set our season on fire if he came as he will for any club that signs him. He has pace, trickery and a great ball delivery. He can score goals as well. Top player for any club outside of the top 4.

 

Well argued mate. Were is the open letter to Bruce and Quinn, I'll sign it.

 

I suppose ill say my bit
£10m Yes
£60K a week no
Do i want him Yes but not at the wages which i think everyone agrees with i say get Bramble involved lol

 

Been Tweeting bramble to tell him to get Charlie up here and signed for us!!!

 

Im sure we have a wage cap dunno what it is but id imagine its around the 50K mark. Im sure the likes of Gyan and Sess will be on this but im also sure they have performance related pay to boost their wages if they win or score or assist. So surely if N'Zog wants 60K we can offer him 50K plus these benefits and if he is as good as he thinks he is then he will get paid what he wants.

 

Simple to me, trust Quinn and Bruce, if the deal is right they will do it and I have a feeling he will be ours by kick off.

 

So what do we do then? We can't move on to bigger and better players if we arnt prepared to pay bigger wages. I don't think it's 60-70k anyway, it's paper talk. And as for the other players wanting payrises? I doubt it, when Rooney got a new contract at united, the other players wernt demanding payrises.

 

Let's look at it from another angle.

Can anyone think of another player, on ability alone, that is better than N'Zogbia on his day, that we realistically could sign right now?

I'll start, i ****ing can't.

Try it (ignoring personal opinions of him as a man, and cost and wage speculation)

 

Totaly agree Cest, alot of this "wage demands" seem to be nothing more than hearsay. £10M for a player with one year left on his contract is expensive as lets be honest if wigan think he's worth that amount what value would be put on Sess for instance? When wigan stayed up at the end of the season I knew this would happen but think Quinn and Co will do what's right for the club. We are still work in progress!

 

Only other alternative I can think of is Kranjcar who aint quite as good and is still being banded around at the 8-10 million mark.

I would still take him like as hes a younger Steed in my eyes but the pace and trickery of N'Zogbia genuinely excites me.

 

Aye he's probably the closest alternative, but hm being right footed and a lot slower than Zog, i thing the term 'excites' is right.

Zog would MASSIVELY improve the team, from a purely footballing perspective.

 

Wigan want more than 10m as that's what Villa offered them and it was rejected.