Poll: Would you sell Alex Song to Man City? 11 July, 2009
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
There’s not a lot going on today so I’m going to use this opportunity to try this poll feature. I’ve just came across this story in L’Equipe saying Man City are interested in Alexandre Song. I know the article is in French but it’s the idea behind it rather than what’s in it that I’m interested in.
I started off not a big fan at all of Song at all but he has grown and grown on he. He seems to keep on improving and is growing into that player Wenger told us to be patient for. However there are still glimpses of his old self now and again and could he have peaked already. I think we’ll all agree he has improved a lot since he moved here – but what’s next?
What do you reckon? If Man City came in with a bid would you take it? It could be a big offer seeing as it’s them, that would change things obviously, but just try to think about whether he’s worth keeping or not, rather than the money.
I’ll cast the first vote and I think we should keep him. I would have never have said this a couple of years ago but if he keeps on improving at the rate he is, he could actually be quite good. Wenger could prove all the doubters wrong. We’ll see, I think he’s worth keeping just to wait and see.
Happy voting.
If not a great player for the first team, I’m sure he can be a great back-up player in midfield with a humble attitude and thats great. So keep him.
Well, he is our first choice CDM at the moment so unless we sign 2 CDM, then no. Denilson is not a CDM. He is awful at it, he’s more like Cesc.
Matuidi/Cana as #1 and Song as his understudy
Song will be our CDM for years to come,
he made massive strides last year and we got a primer of his talent. i suppose it is the same with both song and denilson
if they are given chances this year, i think they both will be very crucial for a good run.
Alex can turn out to be the next Essien of Arsenal.
yeah no more rleasing players who turn out to be world class players
i’m talking about ronaldo yaya toure ibrahimovich etc.
Deja vu??
song is still improving and will be our dmf.
I beleive in given credit when its deserved .. Song has had a couple of awful games in our colors .. But even before last season Song (and Denilson off course) proved that on a good day he could be pretty darn good he when we trashed Pool 6-3 he had Gerrard and Alonso well in his pocket .. in fact in 3 encounters with Gerrard our cameroinian has looked better than the England captain. I felt Song was pretty frustrating in the first half of the season .. waht i liked about him was that he actually tackled and was quit strong physically .. I also noticed that the guy is very strong in the air.. but he seemed slow and frankly quite lazy and you wondered if he gave a fuq. One wondered if he had glue instead of blood in his veins.
If you had raised this question earlier in the season Id have said lets get rid of him , but he really improved as the season went on he even looked fast at times and I had him arguably as man of the match or a a close second in around seven games .. thats how good he was in the end. I remember my brother thinking Id lost it when I claimed that Song was our best player around the CL quarters .. and on form he must have been. He also put in a flawless performance in defence on two occasions as I recall. So Keep the guy if he improve or even if he can maintain his end of season form .. he could definetly do a the job for us espacially if the rest of the squad raise their game.
No… Citeh can f*ck off. They can take Toure and Ade if they want.
Sorry I meant the “Liverpool” Captain.
He misplaces too many passes, his passing technique is all wrong. Every Match I’ve seen him play he has misplace too many passes and in the Premier League that is not good enough. He is very Inconsistent and when ever arsenal start a play he ruins it by misplacing the pass and disrupting the momentum. It would be our gain and city’s loss on this one.
No way, dont sell him, hes gonna be huge and soon at that, very humle, great guy and hard worker, showed that with his improvement as the season went on. We need to get another Dm infront of him now to help him improve further!
He’s too lazy and lacks concentration like Denilson. Song just lets runners float into the hole in front of the centre halfs. He cost us the game against Tottenham at home (4-4), the Sunderland goal at the stadium of light (2 points dropped and could have been worse), Anelka’s goal at home. Our main reason for having such a soft centre, conceeding too many sloppy goals and a horrendous away record is the lack of a disciplined defensive midfielder. Song has improved but I can’t ever see him being that effective. If he has someone to take the defensive duties from him he’s not adept enough going forward. If he plays with Fabregas we’ll leak goals. Drive up the price and cash in
the next essien are you deluded lol what next
Walcot is the next Ronaldo
a good back-up an nothing more.
Farooq….he was inconsistent at the start of the seasn yes, but much better as the season went on, why sell him before hes at his peak, unless we get 25mil AND we can buy real class for that. Even with Melo at 21m, I dont think we’ll get an awful lot better right now and no-one that can improve as much anyway!
Misplaces passes???
WTF?? Have you seen stats? Blaming him for Spuds and Tottingham?? Do you watch matches??
You wanna know the midfielder with the worst stats in passing, tackling, failed dribbles ?? That’s Abou Diaby.
100 million from you cunts and every one else 20 million
FOR 12M OR MORE “Yes! Take the money and run.”
LESS 12M ROR LESS “No way, he’s still improving. He could turn out to be a great “
Silly question…U must be bored.
He was our 2nd best player over the last third of the season behind Arshavin and certainly our most improved player of the season. It would mad to let him go and we dont yet have a replacement.
Dixon, absolutely right. As if the press does not do enough to destabilise the team. A so called blogger with nothing better to do talks absolute rubbish. Why would we even consider such a thing?
Fucking unbelievable.
some say song has got no speed, I say so too was makelele and our own cesc.
some say song has no positional sense, i say that can be trained – the fact he came of age as the season went is testimony that he can develop, he is still very young.
some say even denilson is versatile, can also play attack M, I say yes, but we are well endowed there with cesc, rosicky, nasri, ashavs. in contrast, song can also play CD and there he wins headers and all and he shows a very good positionl sense there. Did anyone feel much safer like me with song in CD when the rest of them were injured? DONT SALE SONG, REM IT TOOK Flamoney 4 years to come of age the way song did.
No way hes god and very strong. and hel b a good DM in coming yrs… for sur………..
Believe me, you can see quality in a player no matter at what age; When i first saw Clichy play it struck my head he’s going to turn out a great left back. When you see the likes of Ramsey and Wilshere play in an Arsenal shirt and then you compare them with Song, In terms of improvement and promise, they are lightyears away from what Song will become. I just dont want him messing up next season in an Arsenal shirt. I dont know what Wenger see’s in him. He does not have the capacity of improvement that Flamini had.
credits due where credits due, alex song has made MASSIVE progress in the 2nd half of tha season, he can nly get better, and denilson will improve but slowly, how long will we wait?? nlii time will tell
Farooq.? is that u in cyberia or..?
I can assure you that we’ve no interest in Alex bloody Song. No offense, you’ve got several great players i’d love to see here, but not Song. Is he better than Barry, De Jong or Kompany? No.
Song is Not Going Anywhere!!!!!!
Wenger highly rates him, no money would prize him away from the Emirates111111
Lets all remember Song missed pre-season and the beginning of the season due to the Olympics, so he’s obviously struggled to get into the Tempo of the team once the season as started. If Song had had Pre-season, he would have played a better role in the defensive midfield throughout the whole season. The boy as impressed alot over the last couple of years and he would only improve over the years.
The Song is Awesomeness !
Id sell walcott to man city.
Dont see a place for him in the future if we’re going on talent alone.
Doubtless theyl find a spot for him at the expense of someone else.
Song on the other hand is good. Was out best player many times last season and really built up some momentum towards the end of the year. I find it shocking you’d pick song as the player to flog unless there’s been some reported interest im unaware of… diaby maybe would be more appropriate.
To Those in the Poll that are Song Fanatics:
Why does he always seem to be chasing back?
Why does he lollup around in some matches and sprint for others?
Why does only look good when we play 5 in the middle–check n see all last season?
Answer; poor reader of the game gets exposed in 442. May have will and determination of Parlour but A. can’t apply it consistently and B. is no grafter or football intelligent as Parlour was.
For me he is good (would be better in slower Serie A) but will never make in a team that wins something even as a cog. Prove me wrong I dare ya. sell please he won’t do
He was easily our best player on 4 or 5 occasions imo towards the end of last season as part of a 4-4-2 system.
I think the team worked better overall when he was playing next to denilson rather than fabregas though, because the seemed to share the defensive responsibility more.
The team looks weak defensively because we play with more attack-minded wingers than usual. It’d be pretty similar if flamini were playing imo. Hleb, rosicky and eboue all think about the defensive side of the game and track back when necessary, arshavin and walcott dont do that, at least not so often or as effectively. I think that’s why we looked better playing 2 fairly defensive midfielders as opposed to 1 DM and fabregas.
SONG is going to be a great player…imagine him @ 26-29, he is already v. good and a great center back replacement..so tell the rich cunts to fcuk off
Let’s start by saying yes he improved as the season went on last year….
However the question is not as easy as yes or a no is it, the boy did very well in fact towards the end of last year but I’d say that was only because we all equated that on the way he started the season in the holding mid-position, witch was let’s face it pretty poor to say the least.
Now I like the lad to be honest but as I said it’s not an easy one, because his position has now become the most troublesome in our squad, so we need a player this year that is the finished article not a budding squad player we can (carry) & work-on week to week.
My other problem with him is that I don’t think he has the right tools to do the job being asked of him, yes he can break-up the play & he defiantly got better @ that towards the end of the season, but much more importantly his distribution is @ best ordinary & also keeping hold of it is also not one of his great assets.
But after saying all this if we sell him we need to use this money & lots more to acquire the type of player ARSENAL need to get to the next level, but if we are not going to dig deep then stay with him until Ramsey comes of age!!!
sell song, diaby, adebayor, eboue, gallas – buy one WORLD CLASS CDM and one WORLD CLASS striker and we will be fine. The ones above are either disruptive or not ever going to be world class. We have too many average players. Time for the team to take a step up. This is the only way that will be done. Having said that – this will never happen! They all speak French, for starters !
4fk u al yall if ya dnt like song blow him alright if he wuz ur brother wot ya gonner say ar u gud urself?giv d guy a chance 2 proof himself ar u d 1 dat pay him his wages.
Song is truly the next essien, mark it down! Just watch how he goes in for the tackle with strength but hardly fouls the opponent, how he breaks up the opponent’s dangerous attacks with so much ease and effectiveness, how he distributes his passes and little crosses(the assist for eduado’s wonder goal against burnley comes to mind, i’ve seen him do those crosses a few times), how he fits in the defense just like essien does- all these not based on his second half of the season display only but on the african nations cup that was held in Ghana as well. He was the rock that took an almost ‘at the end of the road’ cameroonian team to the final beating ghana(my country and host) in the semis, ghana had essien but song won the man of the match in that semi final. Even with the presence of all the african stars from europe Song was voted among the tournament’s best XI. Last but not the least both essien and song started their european careers at bastia.
I honestly don’t know why song was so awful in the first part of the season, maybe the occasion was too big for him and he panicked but he put his act together and came out strongly. Just watch him become the great player he’ll be.
I think song just had some trouble adjusting to the pace of the league. He always seemed to want a bit more time on the ball than he had, but when he played CB last season he would pick out some brilliant passes, which showed he had quality.
He showed flashes at charlton as well
Song is a BEAST!
DM? or CB?
great tackler, great header… poor marker, good passer.
id have him in CB along side kolo, Kolo will teach him the ways. he is very simular to toure and will be a great CB.
he has no-one at the club to teach him how to be a great dm, so i cant see him improve majorly in that position.
AND Denilson is awsome! he is a brazilian cesc, and hes way better than Anderson, an attacking mid who hasnt score a goal for Man Utd!
The only players in Arsenal that are allowed to leave for City are the rubbish spare parts in our squad like Senderos and Silvestre. Never sell anything decent to that poor excuse of a football club…
goonersteve:
Not sure if the African nations cup is still the competition it was a few years back it still has some big names in it but not perhaps as many as it once had, but I’d bow to your superior knowledge on this if you have a different view you can pass on?
But kiwigonner has broadened the argument a little here with his “yard sale” approach, & he’s is right we have other players in the squad that will help to amass the type of money we need to buy “that special player” we need, but if we could sell the one’s he has mentioned I’d actually keep Song for another season cos @ least he was a success story last year where the others he’s mentioned were not, then we’d get to see another years development from him?
Song made a noticeable improvement last season, but he is still young and relatively inexperienced and he will be more consistent next season. I disagree with Aaron that Song is lazy, at least in the sense that the word can sometimes be applied to Diaby, but I agree that concentration was a problem sometimes last season; but then that was also a team problem, hence all the silly goals we conceded. I would be surprised if Citeh really wanted him, but then I was surprised at their interest in Toure, given the players loss of form last season.
Hehe, seeing that this is actually a proper rumour, that city might want to sign song, IF they offered big money for him, Id let him go and bring in someone experienced.
I really like song, I think he will be a top DM in the future, but I think the same of denilson, and we have coquelin coming through, and ramsey and diaby could be top players as well, so for the good of the squad and to increase our chances of winning something next season it would make sense…. Only for a really big offer tho. £15m+ i think
I’d much rather get rid of Denilson, Song is useful and if he can iron out some of the bad habits in his game, he will be very good for us. Diaby is looking nothing like the player he was before he broke his leg, it’s a real shame. Him and Denilson out, Inler, Cana, or Melo (someone like them) in and keep Song to alternate with them when desired.
Also, he needs someone adept at that position to learn from. Come on Arsene. Shit, Fabianski needs someone great at goalkeeping to learn from and it’s not Almunia. Someone forgot exactly who was responsible for that pathetic draw with Spurs… Almunia. One great game against United does not make him a great keeper, should be second choice.
i would sell him only if we bought another DM, i rate him second to denilson, so i would keep him for back pu, but if we bought another DM, i would sell him.
Song is Arsenal’s most improved player last season so no.
Now I see why the Kiwis don’t get anywhere! Sell our best center back, on of our starting strikers, our best backup right back, one of our better defensive midfielders (Song) and buy one striker and one midfielder? Who exactly do you propose to buy you twit! You seem to forget that one of the main problems with last season was our injury list!
Song is a fabulous player, needs more experience yes, but he has shown he can outplay Essien and Gerard. Man of the match several games last season and he’ll get better! Only reason to sell him is if an incredible offer is made (13K+) AND I’d still want to know first who that “experienced, world class” replacement will be. Forget Melo, he is going to Juve.
settle down Griller. Kiwis may not fly but sometimes show slightly more intelligence than you give any credit for. Adebayor and Gallas are completely disruptive. One has hissy-fits when things don’t go right, and the other rates himself in the same class at the great TH14. You must be incredibly dumb to think that Song is even in the same class as Essien and Gerard. YES – he has ‘potential’ – but we are being sold on the word “potential” for ever and ever. Look at what a difference it made when Arshavin came into the team. Notice that ? He is a world class player. NOT a ‘potential;’ world class player.
That’s what I mean when I say replace 5 or so ordinary or troublesome players with one or two class acts. If Melo isn’t available there must be other fish from that same pond. We sold the only decent players we have had in that position – Vieira, Gilberto, Flamini – instead of developing a replacement, let’s go buy one !
And sorry mate, Eboue isn’t even a decent back-up to a back-up. He’s bloody useless, and doesn’t deserve to stay. The reason he won’t leave is that no one will ever buy him.
Anybody remember Ray Parlour’s early days? Worse than useless. Song seems to be traveling the same path as Razor…and based on last year’s improvement, he’ll become a legend. Pity that he’ll probably be tied up in the African cup in the New Year especially as we have ManU, Chel$ki and the scallies in successive games. Could have done without that.
Enough of losing such players who turns out to be top quality ones in the future. We’ll surely regret it if we release this one (just like diara). Everyone can see he’s still got a lot in him yet to be exposed. We cant define his limits yet. At the moment he just needs to increase his pace, and dats all, maybe his passing skills too. He’s a wonder. Asides seeing his improvement over a number of PM games last seasons, you should have watched him at the Olympic games for Cameroon. He was brilliant! He’s got class and I think next season would be his, though we stilll need to bring in a “BIG 4″ in soon……just in case.
he was arguably our best midfielder in a number of games last year. The first half of the season for him was poor because he was being told to hold and that is not so natural for any young player. When the shackles were removed in the second half of the season he was fantastic. He also popped up in CD, showing his versatility.
Next year he will be 1 year older and more confident that last year. He will be great and we should keep him.
Wherever, we need to strengthen next year, it is not CM, where we have an abundance of talent. Add Coquelin and Wilshire from the youngsters and we have one of the richest squads in midfield.
A big centre half and a better GK would be the only requirements for me.
Song is a young developing player whose improvement over the course of last season showed that he is starting to “get it” (unlike Diaby and some other young players who have great talent, but never quite get that elusive quality that turns a player with “potential” into a quality, contributing player).
It’s true that there are parts of his game that need improvement. But, given the way that he improved last season, he deserves to be given an chance to show if he can similarly improve those parts of his game that are still lacking. If he can, he could very well turn out to be a top quality performer.
He has more size and strength than Denilson (who is too easily out-muscled by stronger opponents) and a better work-ethic and instincts that Diaby. By season’s end, he was anticipating pretty well and showed himself to be a willing tackler. Nevertheless, he could benefit from being mentored by an older, more experienced CDM at this stage and, considering the number of games to be played in all competitions, would still be able to get sufficient playing time to gain more of the experience that he needs for his game to further blossom.
Additionally, while his frame is probably to thin for him to play CB consistently for any length of time, he showed that he does have the versatility to drop back into that position in an emergency without being a detriment to the team in that position if needed. That’s a quality that should not be underestimated.
His critics should keep in mind that he has been severely hampered by injuries and national team committments that have kept him from working with the team and getting the playing time that any young player needs in order to develop his game. This had a lot to do with his apparent “lack of awareness” and seeming “laziness”, especially early on last season, as well as his inconsistency. Unfortunately the African Cup will again interrupt his play with the club this season, but he should benefit from being able to have a full preseason to work with the team.
Given the player that he showed flashes of becoming at the end of last season, IMHO the wisest course would be to keep Song this year to see if he can continue his improvement. At worst he would be a valuable back-up on a team that lacks depth. At best, he could blossom into the kind of tough CDM that the club has been missing and fill that role for years to come. Many Arsenal fans were eager to see the club bring in Felipe Melo this summer, but who knew of Melo and how good was he before last season? Fiorentina bought him for 7m a year ago and now look at him. The same could turn out to be the case with Song…but only if Arsenal gives him the chance to continue to develop.
He shud stay! I hav bn watchn him play 4 his country n he’s arguably da best player in Cameroon. Da only reason dey lost a da CAN finals was bcz Song was out wit injury. Nxt yr will b a big 1 4 him n I bliv we shall all rily b happy dat we kept him. He strikes me 2 b more lyk a Yaya-like player than an Essien type though.
kwigooner u damn racisit u forgat tore what the hell u doing in foot ball circle go and buy ur mam a artificial penis the metal one coz it makes a good erection loser!!
isaak you are a very sick puppy. go take your pills.
Alex “can’t kick a ball straight” Song is without doubt one of the worst players to be so present in an Arsenal team. It’s players like him being so prominent in our team that has reduced us from champions to also-rans.
If we can get a Freddo chocolate bar and a Capri-sun for him, it’ll be an excellent piece of business!
Defensive mids can often take time to develop. At one time everyone at manchester united wanted Fletcher gone and look at last season- he dragged man u through some of their games without Ronaldo. Give him a chance, he is past his bad patch already
We are fucked before the season starts.
The highest prices in world footaball for matchday tickets and we are not seeing the fruits of it. New stadium excuses are boring now and we are being seriously ripped off. If its a toss up between kreonke or usmanov we are fucked. Can someone please tell me how the 4b2′s can afford to splash big on gate reciepts of 38k and not even in europe? we have been on the slide for years and it is all going to come to a head this season. Cesc, arshavin, sagna and clishy will all be gone by this time next year. Our salary cap is going to finally catch up with us. We might not be in debt but we wont be in the top 6 either
47 notes for the cheapest tickets to watch my beloved Arsenal, a working class fan of 40 years earning 23k a year, what sort of rip off merchants have you become? ive got a mortgage and2 kids. Its a fucking disgrace that the corperate pound has become more important than the true fan. I hope we drift into mid table mediocrity to a half empty stadium to teach the scum running the club a lesson.
n19,
that might just happen a bit sooner than you thought
Alexandre Song is the best young defensive midfielder in the Premier League, so why would Arsenal sell him?
he is one of the best midfielders in English P L.Selling him will be a big lost for arsenal b/c this is the time there need to eat the fuit of thier work.