Wigan star Charles N’Zogbia is threatening to go on strike following a cash wrangle delay in his proposed £9m move to Aston Villa.

Latics chairman Dave Whelan is adamant he will not accept anything less than £10m for the French international, who has been told he can leave Wigan.

N’Zogbia and his representatives are unhappy because they claim 12 months ago Wigan were prepared to accept a similar £9m offer from Birmingham City.

This broke down due to N’Zogbia’s personal demands.

Whelan today told MEN Sport: “Charles is by far the best wide player in the Premier League and, in my view, no one is going to steal him from us at a snip. We are resigned to losing Charles. I’ve spoken to him and he knows we won’t stand in his way but there is a £10m price tag on him.

Value

“Villa have just sold Stewart Downing to Liverpool for £20m and, in my view, N’Zogbia is a far better player who offers much more.

“Charles knows we won’t stand in his way but he must realise where we value him and what we want to recoup from any sale.

“I’m always prepared to speak with players’ representatives, we are speaking all the time to them, but we’ve made it clear nothing less than the £10m figure will be accepted.

“Clubs offering anything less can forget it. We feel this is a very realistic figure for a top quality player.

“Charles can offer so much to any team and we feel we are being fair.”

Meanwhile, Ben Watson is keen to commit his long-term future to Wigan Athletic after establishing himself in the first team ranks.

He played a key role in keeping Wigan up last season but newly-promoted QPR, who are managed by his former Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock, have been strongly linked with Watson.

Warnock is also said to be interested in Victor Moses, who also played at Palace, but Moses insists he is happy at Wigan and is keen to further enhance his reputation next season.

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