Alex Song might look back on his decision to leave Arsenal as a bit of a poor one.

Since leaving north London for Barcelona in the summer of 2012 the midfielders career has seemingly gone off a bit of a cliff.

While making a handful of performances for the Spanish mega-club, Song was never able to nail down a regular spot in the starting line-up.

Having been used as a bit part player for the entirety of his stay in Catalonia, the Cameroonian was forced to look elsewhere for regular first team football.

After a pretty forgettable loan spell with West Ham, Song was sold to Russian side Rubin Kazan for free.

Song was one of a number of big name signings to make the move to Kazan with the club making some rather impressive promises about the project they were building there.

Sadly for Song, those promises proved to be nothing more than a bunch of hot air as a nightmare spell began.

Speaking in a recent interview, Song revealed just how desperate the situation became in Russia, after he was forced to live at the club’s training ground having already spent six months in a hotel.

“I spent my time sitting in my room and I would never even put the lights on when I was in there. I just sat with my computer, no television on, nothing, because I couldn’t understand any of the Russian TV,” he told the Telegraph.

“My whole life was just a computer and phone, and that’s not healthy. I don’t know why I didn’t switch the lights on. They worked, but I suppose I was feeling low and I was on my own.”

That sounds absolutely dire.

Song had been promised a house but it never came to fruition.

Things only got worse for Song too, as he was dropped from the first team and not paid the wages due to him.

“To have no money coming in made it very difficult. I had all these people working for me and helping me, and I had no income of my own,” he added.

FIFA eventually intervened and Song was paid his dues before moving to Swiss side FC Sion where he has started to find his feet again.

“I basically lost a year of my career in Kazan. Now I am starting games and I am happy again.”

While that two year spell can only be described as dreadful, it is good to see that Song is enjoying his football again.

No footballer should have to go through what he did during his time in Russia.