Alex Song was earmarked as the next Patrick Vieira at Arsenal... now he has matured and grown into a star at West Ham

West Ham have been a revelation this season but there is one player who has been at the heart of it all. Alex Song is now the club’s main man and he has the rest of the team dancing to his tune.

Signing Song on loan was one of the most astute transfers of the summer. Plenty of Arsenal fans will be looking at him and asking: ‘Why isn’t he doing that job in our midfield?’ They have a point. Sam Allardyce saw a good opportunity and grabbed it.

After my final season at Arsenal I was invited back by the club to act as a mentor and was there when Song arrived. He was only 17 but he went straight into training with the first-team group. Along with Abou Diaby, he was earmarked as a potential successor to Patrick Vieira.

Song’s talent was obvious but he still needed a lot of work and Arsene Wenger is one of the best at developing young players.

The focus with Song was always passing. Wenger likes midfielders to open up their body and receive the ball on the half-turn, giving them the chance to glance over their shoulder before receiving the ball to feet.

I watched Song work to improve for hours with Boro Primorac, Wenger’s right-hand man and a real technician. He’d do extra drills between two backboards, passing the ball to himself and learning to open up his body. If you can keep a good body shape in midfield you can open up the whole game. Now West Ham are reaping the benefits.

He can receive the ball with one foot and pass with the other, which helps him see the bigger picture very early. He rarely takes more than two touches and that gets West Ham moving quickly. He is an excellent passer, too, a real side-foot specialist, so it’s no surprise West Ham average around 50 passes more per game this season compared to last.

He is stronger and more disciplined and it’s interesting to see the West Ham staff on the touchline asking him to sit deeper. At Arsenal he was like a wind-up toy. He charged around and quickly ran out of energy. Now he is more effective at managing that energy and realises the importance of staying back.

When he first arrived in England I wondered if he was more interested in the trappings of Premier League football. He was easily distracted by the things that were on offer — as soon as he realised he could get free boots he would have them delivered from all over and his locker was stuffed with freebies. It was partly immaturity but also suggested he wasn’t always focused.

When Barcelona came calling he was quick to give in to temptation. The allure of Barca was like Aladdin’s cave — prestige, titles, financial rewards.

That’s hard to turn down, but with the players Barca have it was always going to be difficult. Cesc Fabregas tried and failed so the warning signs were there — the grass is not always greener. When Fabregas and Robin van Persie left, Wenger let them go to further their careers. 

With Song, it was more of a disappointment. Arsenal invested a lot of time in him and hoped he would want to stay and repay them.

But he is loving life at West Ham. My sources tell me he’s been a breath of fresh air at the training ground. He arrives flamboyantly dressed and trains with a big grin on his face. The fans love what he brings to the team and he is more appreciated at Upton Park than he was at the Emirates or the Nou Camp.

He has matured, too. Where he used to try to catch the eye with his dyed hair, now he’s doing so with performances on the pitch.

If West Ham can afford him, Song faces a dilemma. Will another glittery move prise him away or will he stay put? He’s loved at Upton Park and could do far worse than to stay on song at West Ham.

What a great story for AFC Wimbledon to be drawn against Liverpool in the FA Cup. I played against the Crazy Gang many times, though often it was like playing a bunch of louts!

They would turn up at your ground with the ghetto blaster music blaring. They tried to make as much noise as they could to disrupt opponents.

It was like their battle cry to get into match mode but it never affected me.

In away games in their tunnel, you would line up and look across to see Vinnie Jones head-butting the toilet door and John Fashanu going through his martial arts routine.

If anything, that wound you up even more and you just thought, ‘Right. Let’s get it on!’