10 Newcastle Players Who Threw Major Strops

5. Charles N€™Zogbia

One can say this for Charles N€™Zogbia - at least his exit strategy was original. Having taken the standard route of stating his wish to leave due to his burning ambition to make it at a Champions League-bound club, he opted for a bizarrely different tact with time running out in the January transfer window of five years ago. As we all know, Joe Kinnear is not a linguist expert, as demonstrated by his inability to pronounce half the Newcastle squad€™s names last year. N€™Zogbia, however, feigned sheer outrage at Kinnear€™s pronunciation faux-pas, as he pronounced his name as €˜Insomnia€™ during a post-match interview.

''Joe Kinnear insulted Charles at a press conference. He has said it is a mistake, but he has not made any mistake regarding other players۪ names. If he meant it as a joke, it is a good joke for Kinnear but to Charles, it is not. I don۪t know if he will play for Newcastle again, he is refusing to play for Joe Kinnear.۪۪ - Agent of Charles N۪Zogbia, Franck Peslerbe, January 2009.

Kinnear, on the other hand, was not amused.

''Sadly, this just smacks of a desperate attempt to engineer a move away from Newcastle United. OK, I got a little tongue-tined, but if I had a pound for every time I۪ve mis-pronounced a player۪s name down the years, then I۪d be a very wealthy man indeed.۪۪ - Joe Kinnear, January 2009.

In the end, N€™Zogbia was shown his marching orders, much to the mirth of the manager who had offended him so.

''It is laughable really. Charles lived in a fantasy world. There was not a day when he didn۪t have some Mickey Mouse story about a club that wanted him. First it was Arsenal, then Manchester United, then Real Madrid, Aston Villa and Liverpool. In the end, there was only one thing I could do - sell him to Wigan.۪۪ - Joe Kinnear, February 2009.