McLeish: N´Zogbia capture may end spending

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish may put an end to his spending if he is successful in signing Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia.

The French winger is expected to sign for Villa for a reported fee of 9.5 million pounds later this week and would join Manchester City’s Shay Given at Villa Park as new arrivals.

But the new boss is happy with the depth in his squad and feels that he has the talent within it to deal with Ashley Young’s departure.

“You can never say never but at the moment if we get N’Zogbia, which is looking good, then it’s unlikely we will do anything, unless there’s more trading with the players we already have in the squad,” McLeish said.

“At the moment we don’t plan to do any more business. I believe we’ve got some great young players and we’ve got one or two sleepers in there that could emerge.”

“I know Ashley Young’s boots are big ones to fill but there are one or two players that could emerge as a result of Ashley leaving the club.”

With FIFA’s financial fair-play regulations set to be introduced in 2013, McLeish is keen to work within a budget – especially on wages.

“We’re watching the wages don’t spiral out of control. Even bringing in free transfers, everybody thinks they don’t cost you anything but they could be 50-60,000 (pounds) a week in wages and it just escalates the wage bill out of all proportion,” he said.

“Randy Lerner has already stated that he wants to keep it tighter and work within a means and that’s normal, especially with 2013 coming up, and I believe a lot of clubs will follow suit.”

“We have a good squad, I have to pay respect to the lads that are already there. They’re on big wages and I can’t just discard them.”