Alex McLeish target £8m Charles N'Zogbia for Birmingham City
Dec 28 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
BLUES are eyeing up Wigan Athletic’s Charles N’Zogbia for a possible January transfer.
The £8 million-rated former Newcastle United man is among a clutch of players Alex McLeish is considering for the wide areas.
Celtic’s Aiden McGeady is another but any hopes of tempting Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough appear to have been written off a while back.
N’Zogbia, who scored a stunning goal against Blues during a scintillating first-half display for Wigan at the beginning of the month, can play on either flank or even at left-back.
The Frenchman only left Newcastle 12 months ago in a £6 million deal that included Ryan Taylor moving to the North East.
N’Zogbia, 23, is an athletic attacker with plenty of pace and mobility.
According to reports in Germany, Blues remain in the hunt for Schalke O4’s Kevin Kuranyi, who McLeish has been out to watch in action.
He is coming into the last six months of his contract and Blues will only firm up their interest if the German side request a realistic transfer fee – he had been tagged at £5 million – and the striker drops massive wage demands of £130,000 a week.
Another forward who McLeish likes, Milan Jovanovic, of Standard Liege, seems set to run his contract down and join AC Milan in the summer.
Kevin Phillips, meanwhile, is again attracting interest from Middlesbrough, who are due to send Marcus Bent back from his Teesside loan, which ends today.
Phillips has been unable to get a regular run up front in the Blues team and has made just a solitary brief stoppage-time substitute appearance in the last two months.
