Source: FOOTYMAD
Club pours cold water on strike rumours
Wigan Athletic have dismissed the rumours that Charles N'Zogbia is set to go on strike in a bid to earn himself a move to Aston Villa. The Wigan Evening Post is reporting that the situation was described as 'rubbish' by a club source and the French international is expected to board a plane to Austria today. Manager Roberto Martinez said: "He's been a true professional around the place. He couldn't be any further away from being on strike." The squad are travelling to the homeland of Paul Scharner following the successful trip to Sweden last week as final preparations for the season are well underway. Speaking about the trip, Roberto Martinez said: “Overall the pre-season is developing quite smoothly. “But now we’re going to Austria for a trip where we’re going to have two games and we’re going to have another intense period before we come up against Preston North End [a week on Sunday]. “The altitude in Austria, the scenery, the mountains, the fresh air, it’s a perfect environment just to work on the physical side of our game. “You need to play games before the season too though, and competition where you can really play football in a different type of culture. “A different kind of football that brings different kinds of problems could really give us an extra dimension and it’s important that we can achieve that in Austria. “The opposition is going to be very different, it’s going to be very physical, but we need to start slowly getting into the levels that we need in the Premier League. “At the moment we’re reaching the targets that we set out before the pre-season started. “Working in three different environments really does help because there’s so much work to get through. Trips help to get the players close to each other. “Everything is focused on reaching the optimum levels for the Villareal game [August 7], and at the moment we are well on course to do that.”
