N’Zogbia is going nowhere, says Kinnear

NEWCASTLE boss Joe Kinnear insists he is intent on strengthening his squad after telling midfielder Charles N’Zogbia he is going nowhere.

The 61-year-old was furious to read reports from France linking the unsettled 22-year-old Frenchman with a January move to Paris St Germain.

Kinnear knows he may need to sell before he can set about the task of bolstering the squad he inherited from Kevin Keegan should he remain in charge when the transfer window opens.

However, he is adamant that none of the men who contributed to Saturday’s morale-boosting 0-0 draw at Barclays Premier League leaders Chelsea will be up for grabs, and that includes N’Zogbia.

Kinnear said: “Charles N’Zogbia is not going anywhere. He is still part of my plans and he still has a future at this football club, and talk of me granting him a transfer is not only incorrect, it is absolute rubbish.

“And speaking personally, I do not like to be told via the media that one of my players wants to leave.

“If Charles N’Zogbia – or anyone else for that matter – has a problem, they should come to see me first. N’Zogbia was happy to sign a five-year contract just 14 months ago at, I am told, improved terms, and he should honour it.”

The suggestion that N’Zogbia is agitating for a move is something with which successive Magpies managers have had to deal, speculation in the past having linked him with both Arsenal and Tottenham.

N’Zogbia’s talent is unquestionable – Bobby Robson staged something of a coup to prise him away from Le Havre as a teenager in September 2004, and Newcastle had to fight through the courts to retain his services.

However, the left-winger has played much of his recent football for the club as an emergency left-back, a role he clearly does not enjoy, and with Jose Enrique and Sebastien Bassong having shared those duties under Kinnear, he has been marginalised.

Damien Duff’s form and the return of summer signing Jonas Gutierrez from injury have limited his opportunities in the last month or so, and he has had to make do with brief cameos as a substitute in the last two games.

Kinnear has already drawn up and submitted his own list of transfer window targets with a deal to sell the club, and therefore a decision on his future, looking increasingly unlikely until well into the new year.

Owner Mike Ashley faces a big decision with a new and more focussed recruitment drive essential if the club is to drag its self away from the fight for top-flight survival.

Even Saturday’s heroics at Stamford Bridge could not prevent the Magpies from being sucked back into the drop-zone as a result of Wigan’s victory over Everton last night, an irony which was not lost on Kinnear.

He said: “It’s a crazy situation. We get a great point at Chelsea and then find we have moved into the bottom three. It all shows just what a topsy-turvy situation it is at the bottom.”