Alex Song has been – without question – a key factor in West Ham’s unpredictable season this year. He was influential in West Ham’s early rise to the great height of fourth in the league table, but lately he is just a shadow of the player from his early performances and his form seems to be slipping along with West Ham’s position in the table.
He came in with such a strong presence, and looked excellent when leading and controlling the midfield – but since his retirement from international football, he hasn’t looked like the world-class player he was when he arrived. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that West Ham’s form has declined alongside that of Alex Song, given how much he contributed to our winning formula earlier in the season. West Ham have just one win in their last ten league games, and put on a poor showing against Crystal Palace in their last home game.
Song does bring a lot to the side when he’s “on-song”, if you will. When he’s at his best, he’s a dream to watch. He’s particularly effective at controlling the midfield and determining how and when we move forward. We’re a tough side to break down when he’s sat in the heart of the midfield. His passes can set the game alight, and defensively he’s a strong asset to the team.
The problem with Song is that when he’s not at his best, he’s frustrating to watch. In recent games he’s still been useful to have out on the pitch, but he’s given the ball away to the opposition far too many times, and while Harry Kane deserved an Oscar for his last-minute penalty winning theatrics in the Spurs game, that wasn’t the first time nor the last time we’ll see Song clumsily moving in on someone from behind. Too often Song gets trapped with the ball, and instead of making a perfectly easy – and boring – pass to Stewart Downing or Mark Noble, he looks to do something heroic and inevitably loses the ball.
It’s just not the Alex Song we saw earlier in the season, and given that our Song’s gone slightly off-key, would we still want to give him a permanent contract at the end of the season?
It’s not an easy question to answer, particularly given the high price on the midfielder’s head. Alex Song was signed by Barcelona for £15 million pounds, and has two years left on his contract, so he would not come cheap for West Ham United. There is also uncertainty over whether Song would accept an offer from West Ham should one appear, although in early February of this year Song did say that he is “very happy here and {his} family is happy here. And the most important thing is happiness. I would love to stay here at West Ham but I will choose at the end of the season.”
The hype surrounding Song may be dwindling, but I’d still like to see him stay. Even with the above frustrations, I don’t see a stronger player than Alex Song sitting on our bench waiting to come on. However, when it comes to Song signing a permanent contract, the main thing will be money. I don’t think we can afford to spend in the region of £15 million on one player who isn’t always at 100% (I think we’ve learned a lesson there, no?) when we know full well we can also get ace performances from players that we’ve paid in the region of £2 – £3.5 million pounds for (enter Aaron Cresswell and Diafra Sakho.)
Song is having a truly frustrating period of play at the moment, but so are many of his teammates and the club as a whole. I’ll stand by West Ham always, so I’ll stand by Song while he gets back into the swing of things here – although I do hope he finds his form again as soon as humanly possible so we can start planning for his future – or, in a worse case scenario, his replacement.
In Alex Songs case, I am not surprised he was dropped against Chelsea, because he stated, he was tired, he’s flipping tired with all that chasing around that Sam makes them do with is non-possession style of play, as even with all the shots West Ham had on goal they still only had 44% possession. Song had previously slotted into Arsenal’s team like a well-oiled machine, but what does Sam do? He treats Alex as he does all the others, like cart horses. As I have already stated, I really can’t take this game seriously anymore as so many times this season West Ham have had penalties wrongly warded against them and good goals being wrongfully disallowed for being ruled offside, and yet when 1 of the big 5 get a goal that is clearly offside against West Ham, no the flag stays down, and for Hazard’s goal, well that should never have stood. If it wasn’t for hawkeye goal line technology, Sakho’s goal being West Ham’s 2nd against Man City would not have been awarded, the referee was not going to give it until the machine overruled him. Whether it be Man Utd or Spurs the referee always adds enough time on to allow an equalizer to be scored against West Ham. It happens every season in that the match officials make so many bad decisions and cost West Ham so many points, is it any wonder the players hearts break wondering just what do they have to do to get anything from these games. Match fixing is acknowledged to be a reality, as in looking after the big clubs, looking after the gravy train. Admittedly, missed chances cost matches and last night Sakho and Co could have scored a hatful, and in Sakho’s case with the header he had at point blank range, well Courtiouse was so surprised to have Skaho head the ball down and for it to bounce up onto his hand, in fact it was so easy to score from that range that if the ball had bounced up and hit an outfield defender’s hand then it probably would not even been given as a penalty as in ball to hand, Sahko could not have been more perfectly placed to have guided that in, but no, what does he do/ he guides it onto the Chelsea goal keepers hand and Courtiouse looked absolutely stunned to have made a save that he had no right in saving. The stats say it all, in that West Ham had 18 shots on goal with Chelsea having just 12, and when Chelsea’s off side goal was allowed to stand that had been their only shot on target up until that stage. You must take your chances West Ham as whichever game you play in there always seems to be an unfair and un-level playing field in operation against you, and they even have the gall to rig games in front of and against a home team’s fans. I am just wondering when will we ever be able to take this game seriously again?