It would be fair to say that Alex Song’s recent transfer to Barcelona occurred extremely quickly and Arsenal fans didn’t really have time to digest the news. Following the move, there were murmurs that Arsene Wenger had sold the midfielder due to his unprofessional attitude, yet a source close to the player has vigorously denied such suggestions and claims that someone at the Emirates Stadium is simply trying to keep supporters on side by releasing such claims.
Song completed a £15m switch to the Nou Camp on Monday and became yet another high profile player to exit the Emirates Stadium. Upon his departure, several reports indicated that Wenger was pleased to see the back of the 24-year-old, with speculation suggesting that Song was unprofessional in his approach to the club and tended to be late to training and generally lacked discipline.
However, the player has denied such claims. A source close to Song allegedly told Telegraph Sport, “Alex Song was massively committed to Arsenal, he loved the club and was dying to sign a new contract. We tried six times to renegotiate his contract. They kept saying it has three years to run. Then Barcelona came in and yet Alex still said he wanted a new contract. When they said we’d all sit down on 1 September that was the final straw.”
The source also claimed that Song’s wage was £55,000 a week at the Emirates Stadium and if reports are to be believed, the player will have experienced a slight increase on that with his contract at Barcelona supposedly running at £70,000 a week. Nevertheless, while this war of words continues, Arsene Wenger has turned his attention to netting a replacement for the Cameroon international with Nuri Sahin supposedly set to sign for the Gunners in the next few days.