Charles N'Zogbia AVFC Signing Complete: Former Wigan Winger Now a Villan

Well, it's finally official, former Wigan Athletic winger Charles N'Zogbia is now a member of Aston Villa. The story popped up on NewsNow and came from the official team site. However, if you click the link now you just get a big purple AVFC thing. (Nope, it's real now.) You will notice, however, that the page's title is "Villa complete signing of N'Zogbia from Wigan."

So yeah, it's official.Suddenly the left side of the midfield is looking more solid than it has all summer. N'Zogbia may not be a perfect 1-for-1 replacement for Stewart Downing. Then again, if you look at the stats, he may actually be better than the ex-Villan. 

The winger is with Villa through 2016 on a 5-year contract. He will be available in time for this Wednesday's game against Derby, where I imagine he will receive his first, first-team playing time. It's good to have the move in the books, even if it likely closes Aston Villa's presence in the summer transfer market. All things considered, I think we have to be fairly happy with the two major pieces that have been brought in. Both are international-level players who look to be with Villa for quite some time.