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Song completes Barcelona switch
By Tom Humphrey
Alex Song completed his £15m move to Barcelona yesterday, signing a 5 year deal with the club. He passed his medical on Monday and then signed terms with the club. His contract contains a release clause of 80 million euros, which is £63m.
“I’m very happy to be here, this is the best team in the world. Playing at a club like Barca is something I wanted when I was young,” he told Barca TV.
“I hope the team will continue to win, this is a winning team. They win everything”.
Whilst I am not saying Barcelona don’t win trophies, they don’t win ‘everything’. They weren’t even the best team in their country last year, let alone Europe.
Song had two years left on his contract at Arsenal, but had expressed his desire to leave the club this summer. He joined Arsenal from French club Bastia in 2005 on a season-long loan deal at the age of 17. A year later, he made the deal permanent, signing for £2.75m. A loan spell at Charlton for half a season in 2006/07 did him the world of good. They may have got relegated from the Premier League that season, but Song came back to Arsenal a better player and he pushed on with his career following the move.
Song will team up with former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas at Barcelona and joins an ever growing list of Arsenal players that have switched the Emirates for the Camp Nou in the last 12 years or so. Song said he was happy to be teaming up with Fabregas again and that the Spaniard would help him settle at the club. “I know Cesc very well,” Song said. “He’s a very good friend of mine, he will help me to integrate.”
I have nothing against Song, I really liked him as a player at Arsenal and I wish him all the best at his new club. Apparently he was unprofessional towards training in his last month or so, since he heard about a move to Barcelona. That’s a shame, because he had a good relationship with the fans and it is sad to hear. Nevertheless, I still wish him the best. I do think he will regret the move in terms of playing time and may well end up like an Alex Hleb, who ended up at Birmingham on loan and is now back in Belarus.