Let us sing our Song – but could it be the final chorus? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

Leaving the defence behind us we move up to midfield and have a look at Alex Song.

Some people still call him our defensive midfielder but I do think that this is a term that no longer is used at Arsenal anymore. I don’t think Wenger wants to have a midfielder who just sits their in front of the defenders waiting fro what might happen. Maybe those blaming Song when he goes forward and joins in attack are still living a few years back in time when this was the way to play football. As most of the time Wenger is leading the way, we will maybe in a few years time discover that other coaches have followed his way and forget about the pure defensive midfielder.

Maybe the future is more about having a midfield in which all of them can defend, all of them can attack, all of them score a goal every now and then and all of them just interchange their position to the requirement of the game. And I think if you look at our midfielders they all fit in to that description a bit. But for now we will go back to Song or Songinho as some call him.

Going from “not fit to wear the shirt” to his form last season, I still find it unbelievable that still some supporters don’t want to admit that he is Arsenal worthy material. Some people still only look at him to find the slightest mistake in his game to be able to say:  “see, told you he is rubbish”. Song is another one of those players who have made an enormous transition. Yes he was a very rough diamond when he came to Arsenal. But thanks to the cutting and moulding from Wenger he has turned in to one of the strongest midfielders we have.

Only just over 2 seasons ago Wenger still counted him as a defender. And when we need to bring on another striker when things don’t work out and take off a central defender Wenger usually drops Song a bit back to cover for that defender. So Song can defend and still does when needed.

But he also has a great engine that keeps him running for the full 90 minutes in each game. I think he covers a lot of distance but I don’t have the stats to back this up but he sure gives the impression of always being near to where the ball is. Battling, fighting, dribbling, passing, you name it he does it.

The last real defensive midfielder we had was Lassana Diarra who went on to Portsmouth and then to Real Madrid. What drove me nuts about him was that he was so bad in passing the ball. This not only happened at Arsenal and was for me one of the reasons he never could cement his place with us. But it also happened a lot at Real Madrid when I saw him play there. Tell me what good is it to have a defensive midfielder who can tackle like a madman, who commits too many fouls and maybe can win the ball back with all this but then only to lose it again when he tries to pass the ball to a team mate and screws up? That was (and is) Diarra for me.

Song is 10 times better than Diarra. Because Song can dribble much better, he can pass the ball much better, he will not lose the ball that easy. Song can score the odd goal on occasion. But what he has added to this game since being given the liberty to be a more all round midfielder is the killer ball to a striker. His assists number has gone up and he was heavily involved in a few spectacular goals  in the last seasons.

Last season Song played 34 games. Started all of them. So apart from being banned, he was a player that would always start. In a way this will not change that easily I think and this could be the perfect pick for being a captain. But….alas there is a big but. The first but is that he has 2 years to go on his contract. So if we would make him captain now, it would mean that next summer we would be having the same situation with our captain and have him entering the final year of his contract. And the second but is that his agent is a man called…. Dein. You know the same Dein that has made all our other captains leave in the last seasons.

Will Song be different from the other Dein disciples? One can hope but for some reason I really do think that Song could be entering his final year for us. The good thing is that it will be his best ever season for Arsenal. Of  course the chance could still exist that Song sees the light, ditches Dein and become an Arsenal legend…well I can dream. Because I sure would not want Song to leave us to be honest. After having seen how Wenger turned this young player in to one of the strongest and most all round midfielders in the PL, it would be a hard blow to see him go. The only good thing about if Song would leave because of Dein being his manager is that as far as I know he is the last of the Dein boys at Arsenal. Alex take my advice: ditch Dein.

So what do I expect from Song this season? More of the same from last season. Being even better, stronger and helping out where he is needed. With a bit of luck we will not see him go to the ANC this winter as Cameroon is having a dip with their national team for the moment so that could be our bonus. I think when he is fit and not banned Song will always be on the team sheet. And I am looking forward to see him play and show what a great player he has become and stick up his middle finger to all those who have abused him and told how rubbish he was.

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