The real Alex Song finally stands up
When you think of Alexandre Song, what do you think of him? Is he a great player, is he an average player who is capable of much better, or is he one of the most improved players that we have seen up here in the Premiership for a long time. People usually give credit to Fletcher, who has improved with the technical side of his game in the last few years. But it is time to give credit where it is due for the up and rising talent of Alex Song. He really has set the Gunners’ alight this season with some grand performances. The talented African finally has the Arsenal fans singing a song about it, not any song, but a song in which Arsenal fans sing in tune.
It wasn’t easy, not a chance. The Cameroon international has come through bad spells throughout his Arsenal career, spells in which will haunt players for ever. Some fans called him calamity Alex, or dopey Song, things which shouldn’t be said about an Arsenal player. But that didn’t stop them going even further. There was always a relief of happiness when Arsene Wenger didn’t include the young African midfielder in our Match-Day squad. I never understand that and some of us have been doing it with Emmanuel Eboue in the last couple of seasons as well. Did Alex pay attention to any of this? Not at all, he is strong mentally and didn’t get any of the negative criticism get to his head.
But he started to gain the respect of the Arsenal faithful. How? Why? When? Well, there is only one way in doing so, to perform to a better standard. Alex kept his head down, worked hard, and started pulling out maestro performances out of the bad. I haven’t seen a player in such an enduring time improve the way that our “Beast” has improved. Yes, they may be one or two flaws that Alex Song obtained for a while now. His positional awareness isn’t the greatest and never really has been, but his technical side exceeding every single game and he is rougher and more direct with his defending.
He is the Lion Heart of the Arsenal side, a vital figure in which would be chronically difficult to replace. So, there you have it. Alexandre Song can’t be replaced. Cast your attention to the form of the young Spaniard, Cesc Fabregas. He isn’t doing all of the work by himself, no, Alex Song compliments him by completing Cesc’s defensive duties all by himself. This allows Cesc to do what he does best, and that is by causing opponents havoc.
The impressive Alexandre Song is really turning out to be a world class midfielder. You probably wouldn’t of thought about that two seasons earlier, but this shows how life can change so easily. I’m not going as far in saying that it was easy for him in becoming the player he is today, but things around the Arsenal camp can change easily, but only if the player shows the right attitude.
We are singing the same song again, and it’s a positive one, at last.
Written By Daniel Tucker
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Never would have believed it but he’s now a £25 million holding mf
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This article is 6 months too late… where have you been?
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With respect Carlos the improvement in Alex Song has been this season, hardly six months to ago although some Arsenal fans have been claiming that they have always known that he’ll come good. Song has been a revelation and arguably alongside Cesc our most important player this season
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Agreed Leonard, I unfortunately was one of those supporters who has had to eat a large slice of humble pie over the past few months. I never thought he would cut it, but it just goes to show that Wenger is always right.
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I saw him first hand down at Charlton where he was on loan. I couldn’t believe he was the same player that I see come on at the end of games for Arsenal and look completely out of his depth.
I was raving about him, he always wanted the ball and could play round. I reckon of the 6 or 7 times I saw him, he was man of the match every single time. Even putting in a great performance away at Old Trafford.
I don’t know why it took him so long to reclaim to form. But it was obvious that he was getting better and better and the people who were slagging him off look like idiots. It’s only because they media has picked up on it that the mindless Arsenal fans can finally see how good he is. They only like players like RVP and Fabregas because they score. Don’t appreciate the hard workers anywhere near as much. Song has been man of the match nearly everytime he’s played this year in my opinion. When I get to see him live I’m amazed at how well he fills in when someone goes forward and just the sheer about of ball he wins.
Now it just means people can slag off Denilson instead. Morons.
This didn’t go the way I was expecting to be honest.
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Song has been fantastic since he came into the side last season. He and Denilson allow Fabregas to get forward and play the way he has been playing.
Diaby is ok, but he does not offer the same protection as the other two.
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I was at Craven cottage where he made his debut against Fulham and I was disgusted to listen to so called arsenal fans get on his back after each mistake and then sing that they wanted cesc substituted on for him.
It was the 2005 season and he must have been 17. Think of yourself at this age and try and imagine how you would feel in the run up to making your debut, you finally step out on the field for the first time and then the ‘fans’ who are supposed to be there to lift and encourage the players react like this to you. I was embarrassed to be in the stands that day and I wasn’t surprised that his next performances suffered.
After this abuse from so called arsenal fans I am so pleased that he has developed in to one of our most important players. He’s also only 22 so he is only going to get better as such a large part of the DM role comes with experience.
What makes matters worse, is that not only did this happen to Song, the morons amongst us also dished out the same treatment to Bendtner and Eboue very nearly stopping one career before it had barely started, and nearly driving a very handy utility player out of the team.
there must be people reading this now who were involved in these negative chants, so i would be very interested to listen to your rationale as to why you thought this was acceptable behaviour….
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@James To be fair, thats far more indicative of the holding-mid role than of the intelligence of Arsenal fans. Its a thankless job, and one that requires tremendous stamina and constant match reading to pull off. Unfortunately all of that hard work doesn’t necessarily make him an automatic “man of the match”.
Fabregas has been our most consistently outstanding player this year (and not just because of all the media attention hes getting now that he scores them too), but i agree that some people are still slow to accept that he can maintain his current level of form.
I have to admit i would have traded a folding chair for him at some points last season, but he’s proven yet again why ill never be a manager.
Also Denilson may be an easy player to criticize right now, but hes done himself no favors with the time he’s had on the pitch (excluding that free kick, and a decent cameo or two). You get the feeling he’s fallen off the pace a little in his development but he’s young and has shown the potential to be a solid player.
@Ben I still don’t get why some people dismiss Diaby. With his strength, pace and technical abilities he can be a nightmare for opposing teams. He’s improving steadily this year, probably because for the first time EVER with Arsenal he’s remained relatively injury free. He’s learning to play at a consistently high level for entire games now, and hes not giving the ball away as often, or as easily as he used to.
He’s not Vieira. He never will be. The two play in completely different roles, and we as fans need to get over that, which should be a lot easier now that he’s starting to reach his potential. We’ll miss him while his leg heals, thats for sure.
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