AshVilla

Birmingham City: Aston Villa tried to snatch Nikola Zigic from Blues May 28 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail ASTON Villa made an 11th hour attempt to snatch Nikola Zigic from Blues clutches, it has been revealed. The Serbia star’s agent took a desperate call from Villa as negotiations over his £6 million transfer to Blues were in full swing. According to Milan Calasan, Villa ‘begged’ Zigic to hold off committing himself until he had met with Martin O’Neill. Talk Blues with Colin Tattum in his live Q&A from 12.30pm today They requested that he waited for a couple of days because O’Neill is on holiday and has to be present and ‘hands on’ when transfers are being negotiated. But Calasan said there was no question of Zigic not going through with his move from Valencia to Blues – and that is despite Manchester City being on the scene too. “We were contacted by Aston Villa on the day that we had already arrived in Birmingham and were talking to them,” said Calasan. “They begged us to wait a while. Without Martin O’Neill no decision can be taken, and he’s on holiday. “In that case, there was nothing more logical than to finish a job with the club where all the doors were open.” Calasan added: “In Birmingham, we had a great welcome. “We were soon joined by Alex McLeish in the Radisson Hotel, who was accompanied by his wife, and he spent an hour chatting with Zigic.” The revelation will delight Blues fans and enhance Zigic’s standing with them and dismay supporters across the city divide, who have now seen their rivals act swiftly to splash out £12 million on Zigic and Manchester United’s Ben Foster. O’Neill had been tipped for a double swoop on Zigic and Valencia right-back Miguel, but Blues had done plenty of groundwork on the striker, who has made no secret of his desire to play in the Premier League. Calasan revealed that he and Zigic stopped off on their way to Birmingham in Zurich to talk to a contingent from Eastlands. In Switzerland we met with a representative of Manchester City, we wanted to listen, to hear his plans, before we met with the leadership of Birmingham. “They introduced into the game the eventual sale of Adebayor, so it was immediately clear that everything was long-term - and so it was no surprise that we automatically withdrew from everything.” McLeish impressed Zigic when they came face to face for the first time on Wednesday, said Calasan. And assurances that he would be central to his plans was what Zigic wanted to hear. Zigic suffered due to a lack of regular starting action at Valencia, and was loaned back out to former club Racing Santander in the second part of 2008-09. “McLeish believes in Zigic, that he’ll be the main trump card for Birmingham in the coming seasons,” said Calasan. “For players, it’s really important to have the support of the coach, it’s immediately easier, to know that he’s going to play every minute, and that’s exactly what Zigic didn’t have during his stay in Valencia.” Zigic penned a four-year contract, worth in around £50,000-a-week that makes him Blues top earner. Zigic said it was important to settle his future quickly. “I am delighted to get the deal sorted way before the World Cup starts,” he admitted. “I can now concentrate on my World Cup commitments and as soon as that finishes I’ll be really looking forward to starting work at Birmingham.” Serbia take on Ghana, Germany and Australia in Group D in South Africa, with their first match on June 13 against Ghana in Pretoria. Zigic flew out of Birmingham immediately after concluding his transfer and linked up with Serbia at their Austrian training base. Shame would have been a decent addition at that price.

How much would Nzonzi cost?

taken from a bluenose website someone did a translation from a serbian newspaper. Martina O’Neil misses out! May 27, 2010 by Aylesburyblue Filed under: Aylesburyblue Articles, Blues News Here is a link to an article from a Serbian newspaper provided to us by a new member to the forum who has also kindly translated it for us. It gives the inside track on the transfer and reveals how a certain club up the road was also interested. Below is the translation. ____________________________________________________________________ Milan Calasan gave an interview to our 2nd biggest sport paper called… erm, “Sport”. He claims that in the hours before Zigic signed for you guys he received the phone call from Aston Villa. They said they want to sign Zigic and asked Calasan to wait for couple of days because O’Neill is on vacation and he has to be present when any transfer is negotiated. Calasan comment was: “in the following circumstances, there is nothing more logical then to finish the business with the club which opened all doors to us”. Then he goes on about how the deal was done: “We were in “Radisson” hotel, McLeish came to visit us with his missus, he spent over one hour speaking with Zigic, with translator’s help”. (There’s an answer to your question about Zigic’s english). “McLeish believes in Zigic, he claims that Serb will be the key player in the next couple of seasons. It’s so great when a player has that kind of support from a manager, it’s much, much more easier for him when he knows he will play every single minute and that’s the only thing that was missing while Zigic played for Valencia”. He claims that Zigic will get 2.5 million euros per year, he didn’t want to say how much Valencia got, but people from Red Star say we will get 350.000 euros according to UEFA regulations (5% of each transfer for the club in which he established himself), so the transfer should be around 7 million euros. Calasan also says that there are many very lucrative bonuses for Zigic if “Birmingham reaches it’s goals”, but he didn’t say which goals. The sad thing is this is from a bluenose source which should send alarm bells in my head i.e Biased source or bullshit however the martin o'neill being on vacation part wouldnt surprise me tbh

I think we are missing a destroyer in that side imo someone who can break up play and sit as an anchor man it would work in a 4-5-1 but i dont think ireland has the same workrate as milner to help stan out in a 4-4-2 i also think ireland will get forward alot more leaving stan exposed which isnt good

my shopping list for this summer would be Ins, Onuoha Ireland/Pienaar or any creative attacking player to replace milner. Veloso or another DM to compete with Petrov Top draw striker capable of 15+ goals a season Outs, Heskey Beye Shorey Milner (hopefully not) NRC?

so is mine

Its interesting how alot of villa fans rate MON's man management skills yet with young it seems he's **** up royally,

i think he is irreplaceable right now the position were in, having 30 million is all well and good but were not a champions league club we do not pay champions league wages. We do not have a manager like wenger who scouts abroad for gems on the cheap so the question is who do we replace milner with? i cant think of anybody of equal or superior quality that would want to join us whats the attraction? Its all well and good saying were a big club with a proud heritage but do footballers now a days really care about that? Its all about the ££££ now.

Was thinking the same earlier today. Decent player but very injury prone

I think this thread is in need of some wagner love, mispelt on purpose ofc

If he leaves for city ill probs end up hating him more than barry. Sideways step not in the champions league just moving for the cash yet again great way of repaying MON for all the faith he has shown in him, rescuing him from the doomed barcodes and grooming him into a potential future england international. Someone mentioned in this thread would we give up what we have at this club currently for Man City's millions... Hell no that club has no soul and i hope their arab owner gets bored of his hobby and pisses off leaving them in a world of pain.

20 million is really a derisory offer..... we paid 12 million for him ffs and look how much he's come on since then Man City paid rediculous money for De jong they can pay rediculous money for milner 30 - 35 million + or **** off

Hugo Rodallega anyone? id take him in a heartbeat quality young player with bags of talent.

Robbie keane deserves a joke thread of his own, he's to old and wasn't even prolific in the SPL in his short time there id get rid of carew, yes he's a fans favourite but he is to inconsistant and consistancy is what we need.

imo selling milner to one of our main competitors would probs signal the end of us challenging for the top 4 he's probably our best player and can anybody think of a player capable of replacing him who would be available in the summer and. 1. want to join a non champions league club who are not paying rediculous wages. and 2. offer us the versatility that milner does? he can play right mid and fullback as well? I for one do not want to see us become man city's feeder club who's next A Young? Gabby? not only would selling milner send out the wrong message to the media in terms of our ambition it would also unsettle the squad. City can take their arab dollars and use it as toilet paper we dont want it UTV

He's also more injury prone than darren anderton

Why would we be interested in this Fletcher bloke when Kris Boyd is a available on a free and seems like a similar kind of player but with a superior goal scoring record? Or is him to blues a done deal

People touting sidwell for 4 million? Please tell me your joking we will be lucky to get a single liquorice allsort for the bloke. With Bouma retiring we cant exactly sell shorey and young can we? it would leave us weak again in the fullback department as Young fills in as LB cover also. Curtis Davies is a dodgy one could turn into one of those transfer deals that we might regret i remember when he first joined us and broke into the england squad then got injured if we could get that player back the same one that dominated in the game at the emirates against Arsenal no way in hell i would sell him. Then again the performance against Leicester in the cup.... a tricky one I feel sorry for NRC never been given a chance really its quite clear MON doesnt like the guy i remember seeing him in the FA cup final against liverpool and thought he was going to become some player it has not come to pass though.

lukas podolski lol who's next royston drenthe?

makes you think where all this so called "Distraction tactics" are emanating from trying to disrupt our squad Man city are scared and rightfully so if we can beat blues and hull i seriously think we will destroy man city at their place. i wouldnt put it past Gary Cook the bloke is a complete and utter tosser

precisely the reason we wont be a top 4 side... got nobody to convert those sort of chances

about time sidwell banged a goal in come on ginge

i feel a kevin davies sucker punch coming on if we aint careful come on ffs get the 2nd goal and kill the game off

Red Bull, the players look like they could use the energy

Charles bronson and Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry disagree.