Martinez: Zog must fight
Charles N'Zogbia
LATICS boss Roberto Martinez has told wantaway winger Charles N’Zogbia that he must prove himself and fight for his place.
The Frenchman returned from international duty two days before the season opener and told his manager he wanted to leave the club.
A proposed move to Birmingham fell through as the midfielder failed to agree personal terms with the club and deals couldn’t be agreed with other interested parties.
In the end, N’Zogbia stayed put and will remain a Latics player until January at the earliest.
Martinez has now told him that he must prove his worth to the supporters but has also defended his player, claiming he fell victim to the transfer window.
“It’s going to go down to the day to day work,” he told the Evening Post. “If Charles behaves in the right manner, I think the fans will understand that he has been probably badly advised. He’s a human being and has been a victim of the transfer window at the wrong time.”
Martinez isn’t too keen on the way the current window is set out, claiming that because the 25 man squad is only named after the second game - players can still be unsettled when they should be focused on their upcoming fixtures.
He added: “Domestically you need to announce your squad before the first league game. Then the players settle and they focus. It hasn’t happened at Wigan Athletic.
“You look at high profile cases like Javier Mascherano at Liverpool. Any football club in the Premier League has been suffering it so I think we should help the situation a little bit.
“It doesn’t help when you go into games and the headlines are about certain players wanting to move.”
Martinez has now called on the Frenchman to bring back the form he showed last season and to fight for his place at the DW Stadium.
He said: “He’s an extremely talented player and now it’s up to him to show the other teammates how much he wants to give something to the team to win football games.
“In my eyes he’s a Wigan Athletic player at least until the next window and a really important player for ourselves. He got into the French national team because of his performances with Wigan Athletic.”
Latics managed to bolster their squad with the additions of Tom Cleverley on loan from Manchester United and Franco Di Santo who has signed permanently from Chelsea.
And Martinez believes that with the two signings and N’Zogbia staying, his side now has the depth he was looking for.
He added: “If you look at what could happen in two or three months, we could miss a lot of things.
“You could easily get someone injured for two or three months. Football is a day to day business.”
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Friday 10 February 2012
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