Alex Song

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peterstorey said:
He displayed the Wenger effect more than most, he'll be mediocre at another club.
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Could very well be true, but there's no proof yet - he's simply not played enough, and too rarely in his proper position, for us to know. Which the world and his wife knew would happen, of course.

I'd consider him a solid back-up option to the more impressive but less likely names that are being thrown around.
 
Brightonian said:
Could very well be true, but there's no proof yet - he's simply not played enough, and too rarely in his proper position, for us to know. Which the world and his wife knew would happen, of course.

I'd consider him a solid back-up option to the more impressive but less likely names that are being thrown around.
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Yeah, I bet the poor lad has set the place alight during training but we'll never know because he didn't get his chance at the Barca first team.
 
As I said, a back-up to better targets. Targets like Martinez. Aiming stupidly high and not lining up safe back-up transfers is one of the reasons our CM is in this mess in the first place. Yes, it would be great to sign Kroos, Fabregas and Carvalho and instantly make CM one of our strongest positions. But back in the real world, I'd like to believe we'd be sniffing out possibilities like this so if bigger deals fall through we don't end up playing a Cleverley-Fellaini partnership all year.

Grinner said:
Yeah, I bet the poor lad has set the place alight during training but we'll never know because he didn't get his chance at the Barca first team.
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Yeah, I always reckoned Barca bought him because they had plans to make him an integral part of their midfield. Thought maybe they'd gone off Busquets (never really fitted in there, did he?) and thought they'd nab an immediate replacement. No, the last meaningful evidence of his ability as a footballer was his flying season with your lot. Since then, he's had what everyone (including him, presumably) knew he was lining up for himself: a big feck-off paycheque, and a spot on the bench for one of the top sides in Europe, with the occasional run-out as a makeshift defender. No new evidence that he's a great player, but nothing compelling to suggest he's any worse than he was before either.
 
Would Song improve our midfield options? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes. Would Song be available at a reasonable price? Yes, probably. Yet some people would still snub him? It's like Cabaye again.
 
KiD MoYeS said:
Would Song improve our midfield options? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes. Would Song be available at a reasonable price? Yes, probably. Yet some people would still snub him? It's like Cabaye again.
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Exactly. We need to keep our options open. By all means think big and try for the top players, but keep as many good back-up options available as possible. Look at Dortmund - by all accounts (ok, rumours) they've got at least six valid targets lined up as potential Lewandowski replacements. Miss out on one or even two of the better ones, and they're still going to have enough options to make a rational decision. No scrabbling at Herrera (ugh) and then panic-buying Fellaini for them!
 
Brightonian said:
Exactly. We need to keep our options open. By all means think big and try for the top players, but keep as many good back-up options available as possible. Look at Dortmund - by all accounts (ok, rumours) they've got at least six valid targets lined up as potential Lewandowski replacements. Miss out on one or even two of the better ones, and they're still going to have enough options to make a rational decision. No scrabbling at Herrera (ugh) and then panic-buying Fellaini for them!
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The way to improve the squad is to replace the weakest option in a position with someone stronger, Anderson out, Song in. Our midfield is in such a state we can no longer afford to be picky and stubborn as we have been.
 
To be honest, the money we'll get for Anderson and Cleverley if we sell them we could afford to replace them both with Song. He couldn't do any worse than either of them.
 
The only reason I can see for signing Alex Song is that we can sing his name to the tune of Stacey's Mom by Fountains of Wayne...

Which, as far as reasons go, is a pretty great one to be fair...
 
Alex Song is the type of player united needs to brake up players, physically dominant and can pick out a decent pass, but theres players out there like Martinez, Strootman or Gundogun who IMO looks better so ill put him on the list of targets but not as a priority.
 
Song can be a useful signing if he comes cheap. I don't want a Young or Fellaini situation were we spend a shitload on an average player. We should be looking for better players. If we get our targets and Song is still available at a reasonable price then yes. But Song being "the midfield signing" would be a load of bullshit
 
I think Song is better than Strootman (though LVG might not agree). Not as good as Martinez or Gundogan, but Martinez does not look like an achievable signing and there are still concerns about Gundogan's back.

I think he would be a good signing for us as he is just the kind of player we need to give our attacking players a platform.
 
Are we really interested in him? I read in the papers that we wanted to bring him to OT(but that was when Moyes was in charge though)

sincher said:
I think Song is better than Strootman (though LVG might not agree). Not as good as Martinez or Gundogan, but Martinez does not look like an achievable signing and there are still concerns about Gundogan's back.

I think he would be a good signing for us as he is just the kind of player we need to give our attacking players a platform.
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given the amount of money Bayern paid for him, i reckon their evaluation of him is quite high.
 
Grinner said:
Is he an LVG type of player?
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Hard to say. I don't think he's the sort of manager who's that limited about what types of players he'll use. As he always says, his tactics are actually quite flexible, it's his philosophy (whatever the feck that means) that stays the same.

He's versatile and good on the ball, so I'll plump for yes.
 
I don't think he would be personally. They key compenents of van Gaal's philosophy is ball retention, width and also players working for the team. Song is a decent enough passer of the ball, but his his discipline- or lack of - as a defensive midfielder is very questionable. I don't think van Gaal would appreciate his work-ethic and discipline for a defensive midfielder.
 
Red Pavan said:
Bench? He would be in the starting eleven for us.
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With our current state of a midfield then yeah probably. He shouldn't be though, he's average & we have enough of that in our squad already, we should be aiming higher.
 
Never been a fan of his, don't see why we'd be looking at him if we have a substantial budget to get much, much better players.
 
Do.Not.Want.

If we continue our midfield trend which seems to be "Either don't buy a midfielder at all or buy someone who might be slightly better than what we already have" the we might indeed manage to buy a really top class midfielder by 2020.
 
Aparently he wouldn't cost more than £8m, What I would like to see is we bring in a worldclass DM and a worldclass playmaker for the midfield and him as our 3th midfield signing.

I'd keep 2 of our current midfielders: Fellaini, Cleverley, Carrick, Fletcher, the other 2 need to go (Anderson isn't even a consideration). I'd say Fellaini on that list deserves a chance the most, I think he can do much beter than what we have seen so far of him and I think a 4-3-3 system like Van Gaal plays will suit him beter than the system Moyes and Giggs played in. Also injurry free, I think he can be of value to us (if not we can still ship him out next summer). Fletcher is clearly past it, so I would let him go, Cleverley and Carrick have both been disappointing, but perhaps Cleverley offers more long term value and perhaps he could still come good and he is definitley more forward thinking than Carrick so I'd keep Cleverley and sell Carrick (for whatever amount we can still get).

Than I would bring in:
Song £8m
one of: Carvalho, Martinez or Khedira
one of: Kroos, Pjanic, Rakitic or Herrera (Fabregas we won't get)

Could give us a midfield of Song, Carvalho, Kroos, Fellaini, Cleverley for next season and I think that would be a real options for a 4-3-3 system.
 
Devil may care said:
In this current team but I am hoping the summer will see more than Song arrive as a midfield addition.
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I don't think we have the luxery of being sniffy if it comes to the midfield really. We currently have absolute shite options, yet we hold our nose up to improvements because we believe we can do better, I don't think we can do much better for £8m to be honest.

Nothing says Song has to be our only addition aswell. I don't mind us spending top dollar on several players, but it is a bit stupid to let go of a great midfield player for £8m when we are in dire need of an entire new midfield, just because we think if we'd land all our muppet dreams he may not be such a vital player anymore. Anyway even if we land 2 top class midfielders, Song would still get plenty of playing time as he is miles better than any other back up we got, if we want to win the title we need good players in the starting eleven but also as back up. I agree Song wouldn't be good business if we had to splash £20m on the table to get him, but for £8m, he is good business, compare to anything else we spend on our money on lately and it looks like very good business, and we need midfielders, in fact we need an enitre new midfield as none of our current options are good enough in fact.
 
NoArroJusBeta said:
Aparently he wouldn't cost more than £8m, What I would like to see is we bring in a worldclass DM and a worldclass playmaker for the midfield and him as our 3th midfield signing.

I'd keep 2 of our current midfielders: Fellaini, Cleverley, Carrick, Fletcher, the other 2 need to go (Anderson isn't even a consideration). I'd say Fellaini on that list deserves a chance the most, I think he can do much beter than what we have seen so far of him and I think a 4-3-3 system like Van Gaal plays will suit him beter than the system Moyes and Giggs played in. Also injurry free, I think he can be of value to us (if not we can still ship him out next summer). Fletcher is clearly past it, so I would let him go, Cleverley and Carrick have both been disappointing, but perhaps Cleverley offers more long term value and perhaps he could still come good and he is definitley more forward thinking than Carrick so I'd keep Cleverley and sell Carrick (for whatever amount we can still get).

Than I would bring in:
Song £8m
one of: Carvalho, Martinez or Khedira
one of: Kroos, Pjanic, Rakitic or Herrera (Fabregas we won't get)

Could give us a midfield of Song, Carvalho, Kroos, Fellaini, Cleverley for next season and I think that would be a real options for a 4-3-3 system.
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You think Fellaini and Cleverley should be kept over Carrick? You think we should play 433, despite having a very weak midfield and an incredibly strong set of forwards and specialised #10s? You want to sign Khedira?!
 
Brightonian said:
You think Fellaini and Cleverley should be kept over Carrick? You think we should play 433, despite having a very weak midfield and an incredibly strong set of forwards and specialised #10s? You want to sign Khedira?!
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If you bring in LVG you'll be playing 4-3-3, it is his playing style, he always plays like this (or in variations). I'am assuming LVG will be the Man United coach, so he'll be bringing in players that suit that style, ofcourse we can't play like that with the players we have here, but as I said most our midfielders will be goners for me. I also said I want us to sign Song, Carvalho and Kroos, you can field a good midfield with those players. Mata would have to adpet to a 3 man midfield so would Kagawa, With our forwards, Herandez is as good as gone and won't be replaced (except maybay with Wilson). Rooney vs RVP will be the issue, if RVP remains fits he'll be LVG's man, we'll have to see what he does with Rooney. And yea I would keep Fellaini and Cleverley over Carrick, Carrick has just been as useless this season, the only difference is he is 32 and clearly past his years, he has a contract that end next summer while Fellaini and Clev got a couple of years in front of them and could still come good, definitley Fellaini who has only been here one season and deserves to get more time to show he is a beter player.

Yea I wouldn't mind us signing khedira, he is a very good player. But I would only consider him if we lose out on Carvalho and Martinez, I prefer both over Khedira, but we need this type of player and Khedira is a good back up option if we can land our top targets.
 
NoArroJusBeta said:
If you bring in LVG you'll be playing 4-3-3, it is his playing style, he always plays like this (or in variations).
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He has already been quoted hundreds of times on here over the last few weeks saying that he plays all sorts of formations and that it is only his philosophy that always remains the same. He gives five or six example of different formations - not just variations of 433 but also 4231 and 442 - that he implemented at different clubs. Given how obvious unsuitable 433 is for us, I highly doubt he'll go that way at United.
 
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