What a man. :bow:
Printable View
What a man. :bow:
I like the bit where he scored them goals.
:popcorn:Quote:
ALEX SONG today lifts the lid on his shock £15million move to Barcelona and insists: I wanted to sign for life at Arsenal — but they fobbed me off.
The Cameroon midfielder is the latest star to join the mass Emirates exodus.
In his first interview since signing for the Spanish giants, Song, 24, reveals how he:
Wanted to stay at the Gunners for life.
Was cold shouldered every time he tried to arrange talks over his future.
Was distraught when he read stories from “club sources” claiming he had a bad attitude and was constantly late for training.
Song said: “I woke up and read those things in the paper and was really surprised and disappointed. I love Arsenal, I never wanted to leave.
“I was ready to commit my future to the club. All I wanted were talks about a new contract but each time we were due to sit down, the club postponed it. I was fobbed off.
“I wanted a new five-year contract at Arsenal. In the end I got one — at Barcelona.”
Song made 197 appearances for the Gunners since joining in a £1m deal from French club Bastia in August 2006.
Last season, he played 46 times, led the way in goal assists and came second in the fans’ Player of the Season poll behind Robin van Persie.
Ironically, both players have now joined the annual Arsenal exodus, with RVP signing a four-year Manchester United contract. Song was midway through his six-year, £55,000-a-week Arsenal deal when he followed RVP out of the Emirates.
The midfielder first asked in November about the prospects of talking over a new deal.
Song was keen to show his loyalty to the club at a time when a glut of stars had quit.
However, he claims he was told to wait until the New Year.
January came and went and Arsenal indicated talks would begin in March or April.
Song insists those were postponed and he was asked to wait until the end of the season — then until after Euro 2012.
Finally, he was told the club would let him know when they were ready to start negotiations on any new deal.
Song added: “I had been trying for eight months to start talking about a new long-term deal but the club kept postponing me all the time, saying ‘You have three years left’.
“I hadn’t talked about money I just wanted to sit down and discuss a new deal — I wanted to commit my career to the club I loved.
“Then out of the blue, Barcelona came in for me.
“And, suddenly, I was wanted by the biggest club in the world and they wanted to give me a five-year deal.”
Arsenal said they would talk to him in September or October, after the transfer window.
But he felt he was being duped into snubbing Barca without any assurances.
Song said: “Barcelona were prepared to offer me a five-year deal. I had asked Arsenal for eight months for the same.
“When the best team in the world recognises your talents it means you must be doing something right.
“If Arsenal thought I wasn’t enthusiastic in training then maybe it was I didn’t understand that I was contributing on the pitch and they didn’t want to sit down with me.”
Song’s move to the Catalan capital was quickly agreed but Song was furious when stories appeared — from Arsenal sources — accusing him of being lazy, having a bad attitude and being late for training.
He added: “I’m really upset. These accusations are hurtful, they are slurs on my character.
“I have the utmost respect for Arsene Wenger. I loved him like a father and he is a fantastic coach.
“He made me the player I am and I am indebted to him for that.
“There was never any trouble between us, so for someone within the club to suggest that really upsets me.”
Barca clearly believe they have captured a gem and have inserted a staggering £63m get-out clause in his contract.
Song is reunited with former Arsenal captain and close pal Cesc Fabregas in a side crammed with superstar talent like Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
The Cameroon star said: “I will always love Arsenal but Barcelona are the best team in the world. I may not start every game but I can’t wait for the challenge.
“I would have stayed but when the Barcelona train comes in for you, that is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and you just can’t miss it.”
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz24bc6T9gC
Song. :lol:
I remember him.
He wants to sign for life so he joins Barca
Makes sense
He'll be playing for WBA in 2 years
he can fuck off. ignorant tosser.
with all due respect, he had 3 years left on his contract and we have much more pressing, urgent issues to sort out this summer rather than attend to his lacklustre arse.
to even use the 'they werent discussing new terms' line is embarrassing and shows the straws he's clutching at.
How many league winners do we have in the squad?Quote:
Former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg has told talkSPORT that he feels the club lack a winning mentality.
And to remedy this, the retired Swede recommends signing experienced players who have title winning credentials.
The Gunners haven’t won silverware in seven seasons and in the last two summers have sold Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Robin Van Persie.
And Ljungberg believes that, if the club want to start winning trophies again, they need to invest in their squad to supplement the talented youngsters already plying their trade at the Emirates.
He told the Weekend Sports Breakfast: “I’m a little bit worried. I would actually like to know if Arsene is getting the funding or not because [when I was there] we kept the best players and maybe added one in the summer like Gilberto Silva who had won the World Cup and made the squad stronger.
“I feel that’s not happening at the moment.
“Trying to attract people to come - that’s the problem - because we can’t say we’ll win the Premier League because we haven’t done it for a long time and that makes it even harder.
“It’s difficult but I personally think that they have so much talent that they should try and mix it up and get in some experienced players who have actually won something in Europe or with their national team and get that winning mentality back - but unfortunately that costs money.”
Read more at http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-ne...xKweeFAKr8E.99
Giroud, Chamakh are 2 i know of.
Did Pod ever win the Bundesliga with Bayern?
We need more
"Trying to attract people to come - that’s the problem - because we can’t say we’ll win the Premier League because we haven’t done it for a long time "
Sorry Freddie but only Man U, Chelsea and Man City have won the EPL more recently.
Podolski won the Budesliga with Bayern in 2007 - 08.
Vermaelen won the Eredivisie with Ajax in 2003 - 04
Gervinho won Ligue 1 with Lille in 2010 - 11
Arteta won the SPL with Rangers in 2002 -03
Rosicky won the Budesliga with Dortmund in 2001 -02
That makes at least 7 league winners in the squad.
To be fair, our club renegotiates contracts after six months for new signings usually, not sure why they didn't at least offer Song 70k when it wouldn't take that long and all this could have been avoided. Looks like Wenger put all his efforts into trying to get RVP to stay and ignored Song/Walcott.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiltord's Winner
he had 3 years on his bloody contract, we have bigger fish to fry this summer. im almost certain we were going to sit down and renegotiate september time but his disobedient, arrogant arse wanted it sooner. which is quite frankly laughable. i would understand if it was 1 or 2 years, but 3? come on now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boss
contracts really mean nothing these days if we lost a player with THREE years on his contract simply because he couldn't wait 2 months for renegotiations.
So you are going to believe wenger and the board then????Its not like theyve ever told lies to the fans is it...Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiltord's Winner
Tbf though looked liked we kept fobbing him off repeatedly. Players are a bit thick but i doubt song suddenly threw a strop when he was told just one time to expect negotiations at such and such time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiltord's Winner
History is not on our side tbh
Yes they have told lies and alot but no one reall knows, Song won't say i wanted more money the board will say what ever to defend them.Quote:
Originally Posted by saintnickle
Don't know who was right and i don't really care. The way i see it we did not have to sell he had 3 years left so we were under no pressure to sell or get money for the board.
It was Arsenal decsion to sell it seems so there must have been a reason.
Well they had to sell someone to make up the £15 million defecit in the transfer window.song was probably the only one left worth that ammount of money
No really could have sold Theo to who ever for 15 to 20.Quote:
Originally Posted by saintnickle
dont even try going down that route of argument pal. our board and wenger get a load of stick for a lot of things but if you're for one minute blaming the board for telling song to do one until after the transfer window when he has THREE, yes THREE years left on his contract, then there's something inherently wrong with our fanbase.Quote:
Originally Posted by saintnickle
dont buy that argument im afraid. do you honestly, deep down in your heart of hearts think wenger wanted to sell song in order to balance our profit and loss accounts this summer? a player he persisted with for so many years; someone who everyone - including arsenal fans - kept saying would never be good enough at arsenal? a player who single handedly put in one of the worst arsenal performances i have ever seen at craven cottage, only to go and turn into a critical player last season? you really think wenger thought 'fuck it, hes turned into a star so lets sell him to balance our transfers'..? i dont buy that im afraid.Quote:
Originally Posted by saintnickle
you can follow that hypothesis if you want but personally i think (and from what ive heard) song turned into an absolute c*nt over the past few months. it was evident by some of his actions in pre-season, rolling up his shorts in preseason games as if he's tony montana's godson, when in fact he was performing like harold and kumar's long lost brother. put your hate for arsene aside and realise we sold song because wenger wanted to sell for footballing reasons. his attitude stinks and we can easily improve on him.
We can easliy improve on him but we wont.I will wager whatever you want that an ample replacement is not found ,certainly for any decent amount of money.Wenger will do whatever the board tell him just to balance the books .He is quite happy to have a wage structure for everone exept himself and the board.If i was song i would be pissed off .He was carrying our midfield for the last 2 seasons on 50k a week while the prodigal son diaby spent 2 years on the treatment table.Song is 10 times the player diaby ever will be.
i wish song would spare us this bullshit of i want to stay at arsenal for life, its not about the money, i just want to stay here.
if he wanted to stay here, he would have waited until the club spoke to him about a new contract, not fucked off when someone else offered one, nor demand one when 3 years left on it. he wanted more money, thats a fact
Yes of course he will they pay him only someone who wants to get sacked would go against the board.Quote:
Originally Posted by saintnickle
The fact that we kept fobbing him off speaks volumes. We didn't value him as a player and we'd have never sold him if Barca didn't stump up £15m regardless of behaviour. I think reports of Song's behaviour have been exaggerated and I think it's wrong for the club to leak these sort of reports. When players speak ill of the club they get stick, shouldn't the same principle apply to the club if that's your view? Song didn't kick up a fuss in the press so I think he deserved a bit better. As for what makes business sense, I don't bloody care and it's about time we stopped applauding the clubs ability to be penny pinching, tight c***s. The money doesn't go into our pockets, it just takes more quality away from the pitch and results in the boring shite we're having to watch now.
we did value him as a player, we gave him a big 5 year contract. we wanted mroe money and started trying to make the club give him more money when it was the clear the club had more urgent stuff to deal with. the club rightly told him to go fuck himselfQuote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Pretty much. you'd have thought from what he came from he'd would have been greatful with what he got.Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
Spot on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
if the club had spent time negotiating songs contract this summer knowing he had 3 years left instead of working on transfers and contracts with less time on them, i would have been fucking furious
Does it matter that he's asking for more money. Is that something that should concern you as a fan? Keeping our top performers and remaining competitive should be your main concern and not this nonsense. It's the clubs job to retain their best players and they're doing a poor job of it. It's the reason why we suffer on the pitch. Great, we've possibly saved money and we'll break even this year, but it's not going to keep the ticket prices low, now is it? You should think about that. Continue to praise financial prudence while the club have their hands in your pocket while draining the quality away from the pitch. We're not even enjoyable to watch anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
THEY GAVE HIM A FUCKING FIVE YEAR CONTRACT TWO YEARS AGO. tahts a pretty good job of retaining players. if he didnt like that contract, he shouldnt have agreed to it, blame his fucking agent. im sorry but no time should have been given to songs deal this usmmer, he had 3 fucking years left on it, and we had more important things to do this summer then worry about some **** who wanted more money when he had 3 years left on his contract. how can you blame the club for not retaining top players when top players demand a new contract, 2 years into their new deal, and lets face it, they ahve wanted a new deal for about a year now so thats 1 year into a five year deal and he wants a new one? fuck offQuote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Didn't Kosienly get a new deal this summer?Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
But you're missing the point and defending bullshit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
yes kos did get a new deal left this summer, however he had two years left, the time when as a club we reneogatiate the deal otherwise he have an rvp left. the club did well there.
the club will charge us what they like, there is fuck all we can do about that, i will pay it when i can because i enjoy and love watching my club
Again, I ask...what's in this for us? What should be our main concern as fans? Twisted priorities and foolish.
You should print Gazidis on the back of your Arsenal shirt.Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
what do you mean whats in it for us? whats in it for me is seeing committed players playing with 100% effort and desire week in week out for the club i love. not ****s demanding more money and a new contract when they are 1 year into a new 5 year dealQuote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
We need a new regulation that states any player who doesn't honour a contract is banned until that contract expires. That would make the ****s think before they put pen to paper. Right now a new contract just means a pay rise, the ****s don't expect to actually be bound by anything. They can engineer a move whenever they want, that **** Ronaldo even claimed he was being treated like a slave. And Europeans should fuck off with the laws and their fascist bullshit superstate, the ****s. Who the fuck gives a fuck if they demand the same rights for football scrotes as for your average joe in the factory? Plainly football scrotes aren't your average joe, they need to be dragged back into line - especially as most of them are shit compared to the decent players who used to get paid a tenner for turning up. It's true the clubs had too much power, but now it's swung to the other extreme. So ban any **** that doesn't honour the contract and to make it fair, owners should be beaten to death with a plank of wood. In the event the contract ban thing can't happen (which it probably can't) the owners should still be beaten to death with a plank of wood.
Where do you go and see that out of interest?Quote:
Originally Posted by ollie the optimist
:lol:Quote:
Arsenal
SPENDING £40M
TWO games and no goals show where Arsenal’s problems lie and there are few better finishers around than Jermain Defoe.
I’m sure Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud will get goals for the Gunners once they have picked up the pace of the Premier League.
But Arsenal cannot afford another dodgy start to a campaign after playing catch-up for all of last season.
So if I was Arsene Wenger, I would make an audacious bid for Defoe, whose face doesn’t seem to fit at Spurs and who looks up for a move.
Defoe would be the perfect replacement for Robin van Persie, the penalty box predator to finish off all those half-chances which are currently going begging.
The good news is Arsenal seem a little more solid at the back since Steve Bould was promoted to Arsene’s No 2 and they should be OK once Laurent Koscielny is back alongside Thomas Vermaelen.
But they could do with another central midfielder after selling Alex Song to Barcelona and I could see Newcastle’s Yohan Cabaye fitting in very nicely.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz24qAfkuNB
Wrighty :bow:
He is an absolute berk.
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
It's staggering that's paid for that shit.