With Alex Song expected to complete his £15 million move to Barcelona this week, Arsene Wenger admits the north London club might have to bring in a replacement for the Cameroon international.
The 24-year-old midfielder became the second big-name player in the space of three days to leave Arsenal after Robin van Persie swapped The Emirates for Old Trafford last Friday.
However, Wenger says the board made the decision to sell Song, unlike the Van Persie deal, where they were forced to sell the Dutchman as he only had one year left to run on his contract.
Wenger told talkSPORT:
‘We had planned for Song’s move to Barcelona.
‘We might bring someone in but we have plenty of midfielders.
‘The situation was completely different from Robin van Persie’s departure. Song had three years to go on his deal. Now he has gone and we have decided that.’
Now I’m probably not the only one that thinks this but Wenger and the club definitely need to find a suitable replacement for Song, as I believe Abou Diaby is not up for the task.
We have the funds to go out into the market and bring in a solid defensive midfielder before the summer transfer window closes, so there really are no excuses if they don’t decide to do this.
A lot of midfielders names have been touted with a move to The Emirates, such as Nuri Sahin, Lucas Biglia and Yann M’Vila, and I think its fair to say that many, if not all, Arsenal fans will want to see one of the aforementioned names come in to replace Song before the summer window shuts.
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There have been a lot of negative anti-Wenger comments made that can only be described as naive. Dominance comes in cycles – that is the nature of football. In a strange way Arsenal may be best-placed to achieve some dominance in future seasons. City and Chelsea are subject to the whims of oiligarchs. Manchester United is in hock to the Glazers. Liverpool look in permanent Under Construction mode for the next few seasons. Arsenal’s self-sustaining model may yet pay off.
Wenger’s task is to move players on at a decent price, who don’t want to stay. And Song didn’t – he asked for a transfer – that is why he forfeited his £4m transfer bonus. No player can be bigger than the club – if Walcott won’t sign on the line either, he should go too – there are plenty of replacements.
Wenger then has to take that money and try to secure value-for-money in terms of effectiveness on the pitch, mining that seam of talent just below hyper-expensive world-class. This he has done brilliantly in the case of Cazorla. At the same time, some of Song’s transfer money will be ploughed into the youth system and buying promising prospects from other clubs. Some of those will come through to the first team or be sold on at a profit. He is right not to get involved in the £35m-for-Carroll sort of madness. Like it or not, that is the modern inner financial game of football and Wenger plays it in a conservative but effective way.
There are legitimate criticisms regarding such issues as the wage structure. Does the money paid out represent true value-for-money in terms of a team with a realistic chance of the title? There do seem to be a lot of mediocre players on very high wages clogging up the squad list. They are then difficult to move on – you have the absurdity of Bendtner laying down his conditions for the move he will accept. If Chamakh is indeed on £60k-per-week, it will foster discontent – Walcott’s demands may not seem so outrageous, to him at least. It is a huge amount of money to be chucking around every week – can it be tweaked in a different way to end up with better results while maintaining an attractive footballing style?
There does seem to be a deficit of questioning internally and one hopes the current shake-up in personnel will extend to a serious general re-examination of these issues.
Please when are these kind of articles stop. Are you paid, to humour gunners fans. AFC as we all truely know is a farm club for all big clubs. They actually lack ambitions. They hide under the cloak of saying they cannot challenge the money bags financially yet the 4th richest club with wenger among the highest paid managers. No legacy, no continuity, no consistency. Vermeleen will be sold next season with wilshere,Ox and carzola next in line.Even, if you negotiate well for Wenger’s shoes and suits in the emirate stadium on AFC’s matchday Wenger will sell them all to you in as much as money will flow into is pants as he has already sold his suits. They prefer money to honours.
Its evident that Wenger is now a career killer. He is best used as a stepping stone. After using him as a stepping stone you look for places where there is legacy, consistency and continuity. AFC is now a collection of disjointed players. Most of them are average players. The only legacy in AFC is Wenger himself and no more. No player has stayed up to 10 years in AFC. Consider Man u, Chelsea to start with in EPL. Soon the fan base will start depleting.