A Frenchman Homesick For London? Get Real N'Zogbia!

Last updated : 10 May 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor

The 21-year-old is living on his own in a plush city centre apartment on Tyneside, but he wants to move to London, not back home to France.

When you consider N'Zogbia left home when he was just 16 to join the Academy at Le Havre and was then willing to move to England to join a Premier League club when he was just 18, is homesickness something he really suffers from?

Kevin Keegan: "It's well documented and it's on record, so I'm not saying anything you don't know, but he wanted to move just as I came in.

"I came in with eight days left of the transfer window and I told him what I think was common sense, that looking at my players, and the limited chances I had of getting anyone in, I'm not going to let you go now.

"But if you still feel the same way at the end of the season then you can go, but it will be on our terms. That's exactly what I said then and that's exactly how it is now.

"I think that Charles has shown the desired reaction following our chat a few weeks ago, even though he had to wait to come in.

"To be fair to Charles N'Zogbia, he has trained fantastically well and he has had to wait for his opportunity to get back into the team because there's no way I was going to put players in when the players who were in possession were doing so well.

"It's a different thing now with Everton because there's no Mark Viduka or Joey Barton because of his bail conditions so there are opportunities and I will take one or two young players with us."