He'll be a squad utility player. Like the man he will be replacing.

barcastuff ‏@barcastuff
Barcelona offer 15M for Arsenal midfielder Alexandre Song, Arsenal ask 22-24M. Barcelona could be willing to find a deal for 18-19M. [md]

Why would Barca want to do business so late in the day? if their interest is genuine, surely they'd realize taking an important player out of our systems 3 days before the first kick means we'll not accept as easily as we would, say a month ago?
Unless of course this has been going on for a while, with both sides interested, and in fact it's us who wish to squeeze money out of the deal. In which case, I'd expect to see a replacement ready (still, the pre season, the time to gel - all these don't play in favor of such a scenario).

Also - do Barca really intend to fork out 20 mil for a squad player?

Think they've been trying for Javi Martinez until giving up recently.

And just to add my opinion - he's NOT going to be a success in Barca. CB or not (I agree, BTW, it's the most likely thing for him there). I'm surprised at all the "he'll fit right in" talk. He can do a job, but He'll never be a major success there.

My initial opinion on this as that the only reason we were being linked to Sahin was because we were going to lose a midfielder

Agree with Jazz that Song was largely average last season if you take away his assists. Where previously, he would win the ball, shield it and distribute now he tends to spend to long on the ball and often loses possession. 'Old' Song would be a player I'd be disappointed to lose but as Wenger seems determined to play him as some horrific Vieira clone, I'm quite ambivalent.

Centre would make a brilliant centreback in my opinion

Don Pacifico wrote:

My initial opinion on this as that the only reason we were being linked to Sahin was because we were going to lose a midfielder

Agree with Jazz that Song was largely average last season if you take away his assists. Where previously, he would win the ball, shield it and distribute now he tends to spend to long on the ball and often loses possession. 'Old' Song would be a player I'd be disappointed to lose but as Wenger seems determined to play him as some horrific Vieira clone, I'm quite ambivalent.

Why don't we just take away Van Persie's 30 league goals say he had a shit season while we're at it?

Tam wrote:

Don Pacifico wrote:

My initial opinion on this as that the only reason we were being linked to Sahin was because we were going to lose a midfielder

Agree with Jazz that Song was largely average last season if you take away his assists. Where previously, he would win the ball, shield it and distribute now he tends to spend to long on the ball and often loses possession. 'Old' Song would be a player I'd be disappointed to lose but as Wenger seems determined to play him as some horrific Vieira clone, I'm quite ambivalent.

Why don't we just take away Van Persie's 30 league goals say he had a shit season while we're at it?

I hear you. But I don't think it's an irrelevant point because it's not utilising Song's best talents in my opinion. It's great that he can chip it over the top but when he plays further forward he gets caught out as his dribbling is average and his short passing is inconsistent. Essentially, I don't think he's anywhere near as valuable a player in his current incarnation.

Tam, Song is not really a popular player. He's perceived as stupid and not technically gifted enough.

Don't try that card Tony, it's just a tad patronising. And not true.

I know where your coming from in general Tony, but I don't know enough about everyone's heroes and villains to know of that's the case.

I get as frustrated as anyone about Songs shortcomings but it looks as though we're moving more towards three proper central midfielders rather than more specialised roles in midfield. In that case I think the benefits from Songs game far outweigh his flaws.

Ps I hate postin from my phone!

Barca believe arsenal are an easy target if rumours are true of their measly 15m bid, they got mascherano for 22m they better pay at least 20m for song. Why dont we come in with a 19m bid for iniesta days before their first la liga match, if they want to bitch around...

What would making a bid for Iniesta get us aside from public ridicule from Barcelona and possibly Iniesta himself?

Don Pacifico wrote:

Don't try that card Tony, it's just a tad patronising. And not true.

In a nutshell it's pretty much true.

He's classed as not a very good footballer by Gurgen as shown in his thread on Song in Arsenal talk. Ricky wants Song to sit and let the people with the real talent do all the attacking or whatever which was also revealed in the Arsenal talk thread.

Fine that's just two people, but the majority of people on this board believe he makes stupid mistakes constantly, some people say in every game. You can see it throughout OMIT just like you can see most people think RVP is a prick.

Only Captain and qs see his importance. I agree with them but I also understand he is replaceable. All players bar the top 10 players in the world are replaceable though. What I want is consistency.

In general we are selling our solid first team players and constantly rebuilding our core. If we finish 3rd or 4th again I can easily imagine one of our top players leaving next summer. It's hard to say that we're not a selling club.

I think we won't sell Song until we are sure we can tie up the Sahin deal.

Shinda wrote:

I think we won't sell Song until we are sure we can tie up the Sahin deal.

That Sahin deal is a fucking loan. This is a disaster if it happens.

Tony Montana wrote:

In a nutshell it's pretty much true.

Aye. I think it has to do with the fact that he played as a holding midfielder once but people don't account for the fact that we don't have any holding players anymore. There's a discrepancy between how they want us to play and how we de facto play, and Song gets caught in the middle because he's not being perceived as doing the job he used to do. Different system, different responsibilities.

There's still a lot of valid criticism people can level at Song but most who do so completely ignore the amount of balls he's winning in midfield, the press, all the tactical fouls and the vital passing between the lines. People seem to think he just puts the ball in over the top but only Arteta was better last season at passing the ball along the ground. People want to replace him, fine. But sign the replacement before we sell Song in that case. And make sure to sign someone with the right skillset. We need someone who can win the ball back. Coquelin strikes me as our best inside option but he's young and injury prone.

Klaus wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

In a nutshell it's pretty much true.

Aye. I think it has to do with the fact that he played as a holding midfielder once but people don't account for the fact that we don't have any holding players anymore. There's a discrepancy between how they want us to play and how we de facto play, and Song gets caught in the middle because he's not being perceived as doing the job he used to do. Different system, different responsibilities.

There's still a lot of valid criticism people can level at Song but most who do so completely ignore the amount of balls he's winning in midfield, the press, all the tactical fouls and the vital passing between the lines. People seem to think he just puts the ball in over the top but only Arteta was better last season at passing the ball along the ground. People want to replace him, fine. But sign the replacement before we sell Song in that case. And make sure to sign someone with the right skillset. We need someone who can win the ball back. Coquelin strikes me as our best inside option but he's young and injury prone.

Yes.