West Ham United Close to Completing Loan Move for Barcelona Midfielder Alex Song

West Ham United are reportedly closing in on signing Alex Song on a season-long loan from Barcelona.

According to the Daily Mail, the Cameroon international has been told that he can leave Nou Camp during the current transfer window and has attracted interest from various clubs.

The Hammers are keen to snap up the former Arsenal midfielder and manager Sam Allardyce is increasingly confident of landing the midfielder after making good progress over the deal in the last couple of days.

Apart from West Ham, Premier League clubs, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool were credited with interest in acquiring the player's services. But it looks like the east London club have beaten off competition from bigger clubs to land the versatile midfielder, who can also fill in at centre-back.

It is claimed that Song will travel to the English capital during the weekend to finalise the move once a deal with Barcelona has been agreed.

Sky Sports reports that current employers Barcelona are so eager to let him go that they will continue to pay part of Song's wages post his loan move to West Ham.

The 26-year-old midfielder's previous club Arsenal were also recently linked with a shock move after current holding midfielder Mikel Arteta was ruled out with injury. However, Arsene Wenger has categorically denied any interest in bringing the midfielder back to the Emirates.

"Alex Song will not be coming back," Wenger said.

Meanwhile, West Ham defender Joey O'Brien is looking forward to the weekend's Premier League game against Southampton and is hoping to emulate the ruthless performance of last weekend that saw them beat Crystal Palace 3-1.

"The defeat to Spurs in the first game was hard to take as they're a local rival. In the game we played pretty well and if anyone was going to win it I thought it was going to be us," O'Brien said, as quoted on West Ham's official site.

"We bounced back well against Crystal Palace so we're looking forward to Southampton and if we get three points we would have taken six from the nine," the Republic of Ireland international added.