Former Barcelona and Arsenal midfielder Alex Song who currently plies his trade with Djiboutian outfit Arta Solar7 spoke on his reason for joining the little known side and the Gunners and Catalans struggles. You shocked the globe by signing for Arta Solar 7 a little known team in Djibouti, what informed your decision to join the club?It was so easy, I’ve played for almost 17 years in Europe and I wanted to develop something here in Africa, the President at the club (Arta Solar) is a good man and has a good vision for African football. When I was in Arsenal and Barcelona the people there made their story but I want to make my own story and do something different.When I come to Djibouti there were a lot of young players there they never had a chance to see a player like me, they only saw me on tv and now that dream is true. I work with the players every single day, they are different and want to be like me that is a good opportunity for them and I would like to teach them every single day. When I will leave Djibouti my sons will be more proud of me I just want to make my own story. When you play in Europe you have a different story because there are a lot of good players but my job is to come to Africa to change the mentality and give back to Africa what it gave to me when I was young and I’m so glad because I took some of the players that I used to play with to come join me here.I was here in Kenya with the Cameroon national team many years ago and I saw a lot of Kenyans loving Arsenal even the young kids were following me everywhere, that is the dream when we do something like this because you cannot buy something like that with money when you give people happiness and make them dream.🚨 EXCLUSIVE🚨Arta Solar7 are in Nairobi to play @tusker_fc in the @CAFCLCC first preliminary round on Saturday at 4pm and we managed to get an exclusive interview with former Arsenal midfielder, Alex Song, and spoke to him about the current @Arsenal squad.#FFP #ARSNOR pic.twitter.com/8ndfAvaUpR— Friends of Football (@friendsofutball) September 18, 2021 Arta Solar has Carlos Kameni and Diafra Sakho who joined after you, did you play a part in the transfers?I have played with Kameni for more than 10 years, he is someone I know very well and Diafra Sakho I played with him when I was in West Ham United, I did not play with Alain Traore but he is another player I know very well.All these players have a lot of experience and it is very important for the young players in the team to learn from them, they have played at a high level for many years and they have come back to Africa to give back to their motherland and inspire the young generation to be like them.Arsenal has struggled in the past couple of months, as a former player what do you think is the reason for their dismal performances?It is the quality of players that is the problem at Arsenal now, when I was there we had so many good players, I’m not saying that the players there are not good but they are not the same level as the players we had before, I have played with Thierry (Henry), Sol Campbell, (Dennis) Bergkamp, (Robin) van Persie, (Cesc) Fabregas, (Samir) Nasri, (Andrey) Arshavin and (Tomáš) Rosický just to mention a few and unfortunately it’s not the same kind of quality they have today.I’m sorry but I’m a Gooner for life, I hope that they will come back to the level we know and expect but at the moment they are not doing very good. They won the last game and I hope their confidence can improve, I played with (Mikel) Arteta who was very good, and so is his vision of the game, hopefully, they will return to the top.What can Arsenal do to return back to the top?When I was in Arsenal I was 17 years old and they took a lot of young players but also had big-name players like Thierry (Henry) and Gilberto Silva who made us adapt quicker but today Arsenal does not have this type of quality players that new players can learn from.That is why they struggle and at the end of the day they have to work very hard, I just hope that they will take Arsenal to where it belongs.Another one of your former sides Barcelona is also undergoing in different times, having played for them what could be the reason for their struggles?Barcelona have similar problems to Arsenal, it is not the same quality of players, Barcelona had world-class players before like Xavi (Hernandez), (Andreas) Iniesta, Leo (Lionel Messi), (Cesc) Fabregas, Pedro (Rodriguez), (Sergio) Bosquets, (Carles) Puyol, Dani Alves, (Eric) Abidal. Those are great players, when you miss players like this it is very difficult to perform at the same level but they have young players who have more to come but they have to work at the end of the day. Hopefully, they will return to the top because for a club like that they have to be at the top and it is not easy to see them struggle at the top.Here’s the interview :”When you learn from players like Thierry, Sol Campbell or Kolo Toure you learn quicker but today Arsenal doesn’t have this kind of quality of the players.”- Alex Song pic.twitter.com/Mvcx3lCNXy— Friends of Football (@friendsofutball) September 18, 2021 One of your former sides West Ham United take on Manchester United on Sunday, what are your thoughts on the game?I hope West Ham win because they have started the season well and are doing very many positive things. That game is not going to be easy for them because Manchester have a great team with great players but you know West Ham also have form and they just have to continue improving.Manchester is not an easy team they have (Cristiano) Ronaldo back but if the Hammers can play without fear they can get a result because you never know what can happen, hopefully West Ham can get a good result there.Being a former Arsenal player do you still watch Arsenal games?Yes, I do I’m a Gooner for life, the fact that I’m here today is because of Arsenal. I got everything from Arsenal, you can never change that I’m a Gunner for life.Having played in the UEFA Champions League in all your seasons at Arsenal how does it feel not seeing the club not playing in Europe for the first time in Decades?It feels really bad, every Arsenal supporter does not want to see Arsenal at the bottom they want to see Arsenal come back to the level we know and we expect hopefully next year they will try. They have struggled in the beginning but the season has just started they have a lot of games coming but in November and February, they have tough games having to play Manchester City and Liverpool which is not an easy Calender.
