12 Dec 2014

'Outstanding': Redknapp hails 'exceptional' £15m Barca star BR wants to sign in January

Over the summer, Liverpool were heavily linked with a move for £15m-rated Barcelona midfielder Alex Song, and many fans - myself included - were disappointed when Brendan Rodgers failed to pursue the deal. Predictably, Liverpool are once again linked with a move for Song, and ex-Red Jamie Redknapp insists that the Cameroon international will have his pick of clubs at the end of the season.

In November, the Daily Mail claimed:

"West Ham midfielder Alex Song, who is on loan from Barcelona for the season, will be a target for both Manchester City and Liverpool next summer".

In his column for the Daily Mail this week, Redknapp hailed Song as 'outstanding', and suggested that his performances 'are the reason West Ham are third in the table'. He added:

"He [Song] is exceptional. Who is going to take him at the end of the year? He [Song] will have a lot of options come the end of the season when his loan from Barcelona comes to an end".

Anfield legend Jamie Carragher is also a fan of Song, and in a recent interview, he enthused:

"Big, powerful and versatile, Song would definitely give an edge to any midfield. He was suited to the physical side of the game when he was here with Arsenal".

When asked recently about his future, Song - who reportedly earns £140k a week at West Ham - told reporters:

"For now I don't know what's happening [about my future] other than that I just want to play, help the club and then we'll see at the end of the season."

The Barcelona deal always seemed like a strange move to me; Song is clearly more suited to the Premier League style of play, and with Barca's huge array of top quality players, Song's chances of attaining a regular, long-term starting role at the club seem slim.

I still can't understand why Rodgers didn't snap him up during the summer. Song is exactly the type of midfielder needed in the squad, and he probably would've hit the ground running at Anfield and made an immediate impact (just as he has at West Ham)

Despite a few decent games recently, Lucas Leiva is on the outs at Liverpool, which means there could soon be an opening in Liverpool's squad for a defensive midfielder, and Song is clearly a good option to consider.

Author:


64 comments:

  1. He probably thought Stevie could still do a job! But you're right most fans including myself having been crying out for a tough tackling athletic enforcer. Too soft at the back & in midfield.

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  2. I can't say I've seen much of him at West Ham, but I wouldn't have been particularly excited about the Song of Arsenal and even more so the Song of Barca coming to Liverpool. He was not a proper defensive midfield player. He was the kind Arsenal have. Like Arteta now or like when Real played Khedira there.

    On the Guardian's podcast they were saying that he looks more disciplined at West Ham than previously (they even suggested perhaps it was because of the chastening experience of his disastrous spell at Barca).

    I still have big reservations about him and his mentality. I think there are better options out there. Christoph Kramer, own goal against Dortmund aside, looks a better fit, I think.

    Song will be a decent priced option next summer though and has a decent range of passing for a physical defensive player.

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  3. 100% right. We seem to be second to every ball once we've lost it, the players look uncertain where to re-position themselves and where and when to press, well, in my observation anyway.

    I think right now is the perfect opportunity to bring in someone like Steve Clarke to work a strong defensive structure and tactical awareness into Rodgers attacking style. Everyone involved with the club, professionally and as a supporter, knows an obvious flaw to our play is being addressed seriously, confidence goes up, the methods show growing success with growing confidence yada yada yada.

    We could even let Pascoe go, make the new person Assistant and really get them working closely. I bet it's considerably cheaper to compensate Pascoe compared to Rodgers and it's not like anyone could resonably say he is contributing anything significant right now.

    I think that change and money for upfront in January is essential before Rodgers spirals into a car crash of constant, bemusing, tinkering as he starts to doubt himself.

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  4. and when signing young players instead of paying 20 million for Markovic why dont we get more Origi's and Depay and Musa. Marko Pjaca was absolute top class against Celtic yesterday. 6ft 2 19 year old LW with so much technique. think the club should sign and build him up. top player. technique Markovic could only dream of. i love players like Suso, Gerrard and Suarez wih technique. it gives you Confidence on the pitch. players like Sakho, Markovic and Lovren who are shaky, have poor touches and no skill give me no confidence. http://hoofoot.com/?match=Dinamo_Zagreb_4_-_3_Celtic_2014_12_11 watch the hattrick of Marko Pjaca. top man. we should sign him and Sime Vrsaljko who can play LB or RB as seen at the world cup and has always been highly rated as a full back. along clyne vidal bony and Marko Pjaca.

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  5. His Mrs is determined to stay in London, which is why he turned down Champions League teams to join West Ham

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  6. His wife loves it in London, so if he leaves the Mighty Hammers, it'll be for a nother Capital club. Unlucky!

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  7. The only way this is happening is if hes Frank de Boer's first signing. And he can take that Polish kid with him from Ajax too. 16 goals in 16 games. That's twice as many as Suarez scored in his first 16 and almost three times more than Ibrahimovic

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  8. We are unlikely to get ready made top quality players to fill all the positions new manager or not we are still well and truly in a rebuilding phase.
    There will be more Markovics and the like and it is helpful if you try to forget last season it almost seems like an anomaly.

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  9. also no offence, but if he was to leave london it would be to a champions league side

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  10. Have you been screwing his Mrs or something?

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  11. No it's fairly common knowledge, he;ll stay at West Ham or go back to Arsenal.


    “Alex is enjoying life with us but there’s a feeling that he may believe
    there’s unfinished business in north London. We just have everything
    crossed that we keep the field to ourselves as there’s no way he will
    play outside of the capital. His wife Olivia loves the city,”

    http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/12/08/report-west-ham-at-5050-for-permanent-alex-song-deal/

    http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/12/11/report-west-ham-fear-song-has-unfinished-business-at-arsenal/

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  12. He may be a good option but why not play Can in that position ? he's young, strong and has the defensive experience to know the responsibilities and be disciplined enough to do the job. We have the player and haven't given him a chance. How can "the new signings" take so much stick when, certainly in the case of Can, he hasn't been given the chance ?
    Moreno, Sakho, Lovren and Manquillo could say the same. Short of Flanagan's return they should be the first choice defence with can in front of them. play them for 10 games and we will reap the benefit of them growing into the defence we want together.
    Buying a bunch of players and not settling on what your first choice team is shows a lack of decisiveness. It's costing us points, slowing the team's development and may ultimately cost somebody his job. Management can also be about deciding rotation is not the answer. How many changes are made in Chelsea's back six ?

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  13. BR shouldn't be allowed to spent any more money. He needs to work out with the expensive squad that he has assembled. BR out.

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  14. I argue that if money won't be given to BR, then it should at least be given to someone else, i.e. a new manager

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  15. Does anyone know how much money is there to spend?
    If so could we afford a big name player me thinks maybe not.

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  16. Lallana 2 broken ribs.....:(

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  17. The club has just taken on £115m worth of debt for the 1st phase stadium expansion so whether FSG are going to make more money available this season is unlikely.


    The only way we will spend money is if players are moved on. Which players can we sell and more importantly, can we get buyers for them.

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  18. The ones on loan are most likely and i dont think that is going to happen and most of the rest would be at fair losses.
    The only one that strikes me as possible is Borini and unlikely but maybe Balotelli.

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  19. We will probably have to take a hit on Balotelli too.


    I would rather leave any further spending to BR's replacement. This season is a complete failure anyway. We are not going finish 4th.

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  20. No 4th for us alright and theres going to be a lot of selling to buy in the summer window of that im sure.

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  21. Nevergonnacrackthecode11:13 am, December 12, 2014

    ............................................Mignolet
    Johnson..........................Skrtel..................Lovren..............Moreno
    ................................................Allen/Lucas
    ............Henderson................................................Coutinho/Can
    ...................................................Gerrard
    ....................................Lambert...................Sterling

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  22. Why do we need another flop ?
    We need a cm

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  23. Nevergonnacrackthecode11:19 am, December 12, 2014

    .....................................................Mignolet
    Johnson..................................Skrtel...............Lovren.........Moreno
    ..............................................Lucas..............Can
    .........................................................Coutinho
    Markovic.............................................................................Lallana
    ............................................................Sterling


    bench: Lambert,Gerrard,Henderson,Allen,Sakho,Manquillo ,Jones


    would be my team vs Man utd
    Lucas sitting ,
    Sterling, Can,Coutinho,Lallana and Markovic can all take on players
    we need to drive at utd
    no passengers and that is what Gerrard and Lambert will be


    play the new players

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  24. We cannot rely on Sturridge. The guy is a walking injury.

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  25. Nevergonnacrackthecode11:34 am, December 12, 2014

    Lallana,Markovic,Can,Moreno and Lovren are all fantastic players and lfc have to play them every game regardless of form we need our investment to work and have to keep trying like Kenny did
    But we need to play to their strengths


    Lovren- he does well in a high line saw him with toure vs swansea and sakho with spurs , the only two times he did not make a mistake , him and skrtel are too different


    Moreno- the high defensive line would help Moreno as well i think he has done reasonably well so far


    Can - he has done well whenever playing but he should play with Lucas as he does not have much stamina and is better utilized like yaya toure and he can use his dribbling ability to start atatcks


    Markovic - He looked good vs Basel he needs to be able to run at players and quick interchange , Balotelli and Lambert are too sluggish for him to play off , playing with Coutinhoa nd Sterlin he can flow on teh same wavelength


    Lallana- let him have the ball he needs quick players to paly with as he thinks very fast , play him with Coutinho and they both should ahndle responsobility well

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  26. Rely? No. Hope. He can and probably will score when available. But simple things like that say that the club should be making moves in the Jan even if it is only bringing Origi in. Borini has near but gone. That seems to be what is happening there. Surely a like for like is on the cards. A keeper too is a must.

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  27. diegi diegi simeone!!!! or rafa rafa benitez

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  28. Nevergonnacrackthecode11:43 am, December 12, 2014

    Dybala from Palermo may be a realistic option:
    1) He fits the committee profile young sell on value etc
    2) He scores goals in italy and i imagine most aint penalties like Balo
    3) A mobile striker , pace and likes taking on his men


    I think fsg will not overreact like they did not during 2011 when we bough Sturridge a failed striker at that time

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  29. Nevergonnacrackthecode11:45 am, December 12, 2014

    Rafa wont leave mid season a man of principles
    Diego Simeone liek Klopp loves his club
    Conte,wont leave either
    two options are Da boer or Villas Boas
    i prefer Villas Boas
    a big name manager

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  30. what!! are you dizzy!

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  31. Martin Jackson is a cracking player though.

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  32. Origi has not scored in 951 minutes of football in France he aint going to save us this year or next he is not going to be prolific.

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  33. FFS make up your mind - a few posts back u said Rodgers was the right man for the job now u want AVB- utterly pointless

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  34. He doesn't have to be. He just has to be mobile, fast, strong and occupy the defenders. We need to be creating space and have players with the movement to scare defenders. Right now we don't have it and it is hurting us.

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  35. Nevergonnacrackthecode12:31 pm, December 12, 2014

    football and in life things change quickly based on events
    4 holding mids vs basel at anfield when we need a win is unacceptable

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  36. By that 'logic' if we beat urinal he gets your support again

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  37. Nevergonnacrackthecode12:35 pm, December 12, 2014

    i want to see
    Markovic,Can,Lallana,Moreno and Lovren start consistently and for him to get best of them if he can do that i will have little complaints

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  38. in the words of gollum: leave now and never come back

    please

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  39. I want an extra 3 inches

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  40. Nevergonnacrackthecode12:38 pm, December 12, 2014

    You ahve no right to say that it is Jaimies website.

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  41. Nevergonnacrackthecode12:39 pm, December 12, 2014

    well you were born with it there is no point trying to make it bigger

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  42. im talking about my height

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  43. I'm still sick of your posts. you change your opinion continuously, I've never seen someone posting so much trash

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  44. Why does anybody think Vertongen is all that good? Don't Spurs routinely get hammered by large goal differences? Their goal difference is worse than ours for crying out loud. Ours comes from lack of offense...theirs comes from swiss cheese defense. Pass on Vertongen.

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  45. fair play to shamsy, I didn't think about your height either ;-)

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  46. We need a good finisher even more.

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  47. sell stirling he is crap

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  48. The idea of him thinking about my downstairs leaves me feeling rather uneasy and slightly unclean like I've walked in something

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  49. I believe our defensive woes are firmly linked to our offensive woes. If the latter gets better, then opposing teams will spend a lot less time in our third. Right now other teams park on our side of the field because they are simply not afraid of us because they know we have no strike force worth worrying about.

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  50. True but I will take what we can get. Origi or no one?

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  51. Impressive stats you got there, but we must remember that all those stats reflect only defensive team effort, not just GK ability. If we would have saves and maybe gathered crosses we could make a more educated evaluation of both Horn and Mignolet's skills.


    Potential acquisition of Horn does not (most likely as I have not seen him play) address the real issue in LFC defence: utter void of real leadership. We have missed that leadership at the back since Carragher retired and I heavily doubt that 21 yo German boy can fill that void.


    Granted, BR has tried to fill that void of leadership but results have been ineffective. Toure was/is a closest thing to a true leader and organizer at the back, but years have caught up with him. He is not the player he used to be and that seems to affect also his decision-making on the field. Sakho puzzles me as he was already the captain of PSG at very young age, but now at Liverpool he does not look like a leader at all. Maybe he is not confident enough with his English or he cannot maintain consistency in his game to assume a real leadership role. With Lovren it is just evident who was the real boss of Southampton backline last season (and again this season): Jose Fonte. We should have acquired Fonte instead of Lovren based on what I have witnessed this season! The case with Skrtel is that he is a leader in the mould of Gerrard portraying introverted leadership by showing example. Both Gerrard and Skrtel seem to demand more from themselves when stakes get higher during a match, but neither of them demand visibly more also from other players on the pitch.

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  52. They bid €32m last year

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  53. there's no way this guy is any better than what we already have, and that isn't saying much

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  54. Lallana is over rated
    as are most of our players

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  55. totally agree with you

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  56. we literally can't have Origi, and Bony isn't good enough to turn the team around, he isn't Suarez, there's no way we can get Hyypia as short term coach when he has a job, and even less experience than Bodgers has, and Sammy Lee?! are kidding?!

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  57. agree with you mike

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  58. expensive only because we have bought poorly, it says nothing of the quality of that bench,

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  59. Oh, and I thought you're in love with each other

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  60. Whether we bought poorly or not will probably be seen in a little while - all I'm saying is last year the bench was a step behind what we have now.
    All things happen in small increments unless you are a London team beginning with 'C' or Northern team beginning with 'M-C'; both have sugar daddy's with bottomless pockets.
    We just don't have that luxury so when we buy the next level up players as we have done there is always gonna be the risk they take a while to get adjusted, acclimatised, get going -0 you can fill in the adjective.
    When Rio Ferdinand was bought by Man U it was 12 years ago - his price was £30 million! He hit the ground running.......he is just an example.
    The guys going for big, big money are that price cos they probably will hit the ground running, have skills and have great decision making - on top of which they are young - all those things together make an expensive player.
    If we spent the £65-75 mill we got from Suarez plus another £25-30 mill on say three players, who's to say they would have hit the ground running - we would be buying at the price range of players that in 2002 were nailed on but now they are minimum £40+.
    If one had got injured, plus one say suspended for not being up to speed and red carded for innocuous, and say the other hadn't acclimatised yet then you might be saying why didn't we buy more depth - what an idiot Brendan is.........


    when did cristano ronaldo become quality or luis Suarez for that matter - we bought him for £22 mill when he was 24 yoa and people were saying who's he?


    I'm not sure I want to write off any of our players as shit quality just yet.


    They have to get to know each others runs and instinctive start and finish positions as Sturridge, Suarez, Gerrard did last season.


    I haven't seen that as yet and we are getting more draws recently rather than losses so something is happening..........

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  61. I can guarantee you that Simeone will leave Atletico one day relatively soon

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  62. Been watching that Milik kid. Very goooood. He has what I like. He's fast, tall, moves the ball extremely well and definitely has a killer instinct

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  63. Reminds me a lot of Suarez. But hes taller and Suarez has better close control. But the way he can accelerate, play from the flanks and through the middle, score out of nowhere are very like Suarez. Its actually Leverkusen who own him. Ajax have an option to but though so why would they not sell to us?

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