Former Gunner midfield boss Alex Song has expressed his frustration at Arsenal refusing to discuss a new contract, with the Cameroonian admitting he wanted to commit his career to the North London..but was sold regardless.
There has been an eerie feel about the departure of last season’s best midfield performer who reinvented the defensive midfield role, chipping in 14 valuable assists last term. Wenger stated that the 24 year old expressed an interest in Barcelona, but who wouldn’t?
Now Alex Song has spoken out to set the records straight – he didn’t want to leave Arsenal as many believed and felt disappointed by reports suggesting he expressed a ‘lazy’ manner towards training.
Song told the Sun:
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.
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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.
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.
It is a bizzare scenario. The Gunners didn’t need to sell the talented midfielder due to an expiring contract, poor performances or a strong desire to leave Arsenal – yet they sold him for a ludicrously low price £15m which even Barcelona couldn’t believe.
They have to now replace him, especially
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