The Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez seems to be spending the summer fending off interest in Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid, and by all intents and purposes, it would seem that Alonso is keen to move. Is that such a surprise to Liverpool fans?
This state of affairs can surely only be blamed on the manager. Last summer’s longest and most public transfer saga concerned Rafael Benitez’s unsuccessful attempt to lure Gareth Barry away from Aston Villa. He told Barry, even before the season had ended, that he was going to join Liverpool in the summer, but then spent many months arguing about the price, even though he was guaranteed to recoup the sum from the sale of Alonso.
This made for a miserable summer for both players. It was patently obvious that Alonso was going to be sold as soon as Gareth Barry was brought on board at Anfield, so he was left in the dark about his destination for last season, right up until the last minute.
So this season, after Alonso had creditably responded brilliantly by having a fantastic season, Benitez once again announced that he wouldn’t be selling Alonso, not at any price. But after Gareth Barry moved to Man City, Benitez admitted that he had failed again in his bid to take the Aston Villa captain to Anfield. How would you feel if you were Alonso?
Now Benitez has criticized Barry, by saying that he has just moved to Man City for the money, but could it be that he didn’t want another summer of Benitez and O’Neill haggling about his price again?
Barry made a couple of points when he signed for Man City. He said: “In my case, a lot of it stems from the Liverpool saga last summer. I’d like to change a lot of things that happened and that never really disappeared last season.”
“I wasn’t willing to go through another summer like last year, which was very tough for my family and I.”
For me, that says it all. Benitez may now be accusing Barry of being a mercenary, but this whole situation was of his own making.
And now, because of his failure to get Barry, he needs Alonso to stay, but how can he convince him that he is a valued member of the team, after intending to sell him for two summers in a row?
Is it any wonder Alonso wants to get away from the situation, just like Barry did?
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Tags: Alonso, Aston Villa, Gareth Barry, Liverpool, Man City
I know your wrong , Benitez would not sell Alonso But he would put Barry on Right, Alonso still i the center ! Reira as a sub. (Babbel as a Forward sub.)
But How could you know, as a true Liverpool fan i understand Benitez !
After a couple of great season’s Alonso spent 2006 & 2007 struggling to find his form & fitness. Benitez, quite rightly considered letting Alonso leave and replaciong him with Barry.
This deal fell through, Alonso stayed and had (arguably) his best season in a Liverpool shirt. Whatever Rafa said to Xabi at the start of 2008 season did the trick, whatever it was Rafa, do it again !!!!!!!!
Interesting article but somewhat one-sided in my opinion. That Alonso is a bit miffed with Benitez is clear, but is it so bad that a top professional footballer would insist on leaving one of the biggest clubs in Europe (albeit to join another of them) after his best season for them and when they are finally looking likely to win titles? Alonso really doesn’t come across as that fickle.
To blame Benitez for the Barry saga is somewhat disingenuous to say the least. Liverpool put in a decent if unlikely to be accepted offer (£10m) for Barry which Villa rejected and said the price was £12m. Liverpool upped their offer to £12m and Villa immediately upped their price to £18m. Liverpool baulked at paying a price 50% higher than Villa had stated was their price, who can blame them?
In all of this Barry was left up in the air but it was clear Liverpool wanted him: Villa wanted money, not Barry. Alonso got caught up in it all because the media insisted the club was preferring Barry to him but this again isn’t the whole story. Msr Platini was shooting his anti-British mouth off (nothing new there!) about changes he was determined to make which would make it impossible for Liverpool (and other clubs of course) to operate with their current squad. Bringing in other British players was seemingly vital and so we had little choice but to effectively swap Alonso for Barry.
In all of this, Alonso knew exactly what was going on and why, he isn’t stupid! To suggest he is determined to move now because he is miffed at being unwanted when the club is bending over backwards to make clear they do NOT want to sell him just doesn’t add up.
If he goes he goes, but not because we want him to go and not because of what happened a year ago else he wouldn’t have played so well for us over the past season. The fans love him and he knows it. He claims to feel the same about them. But if he does choose to go there should be no whinging in the press in a month’s time about how the club had pushed him out. It will be because he chose to go if he goes.
No doubt the idea of playing alongside Kaka and Ronaldo and the massive wages he would be on at Madrid wouldn’t hurt either!
Firstly,when has Alonso come out and said he wants to leave?
and Secondly,with Liverpool releasing a statement saying “Despite repeated media speculation on the futures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, Liverpool has received no official approach or offer from any club regarding the players.
“Neither is for sale and furthermore Liverpool has no interest in the long list of Spanish based players being linked with a move to Anfield as part of any deal.”
How does this mean that Rafa has tried to sell him again this year?
Freddy, you might be a “true liverpool fan”…..but you can’t spell the names of the players right.
Hmm, you left out that it was Parry of liverpool that would not pay the 18m price and had little to do with Benitez. Hence the public spat between the two that resulted in Parry being axed. How can any self respecting Journo miss that lol?
Where do you get these writers from? what a load of bollcocks.
Jase:
To be fair Benitez is a consistent liar when it comes to the transfer market. He DID want to buy Barry and get rid of Alonso, and Rafa himself admitted that he tries to buy Barry again, doesn’t that tell you something?
And Real Madrid issued a statement that the price Benitez gave them for Alonso was too high for them to consider it. Why would Benitez give them a price if he didn’t intend to sell?
A manager’s job is to get the best out of his players. He needs to push the right buttons so that each player will play to his full potential. If Benitez tells our star midfielder Alonso you’re surplus to requirements, and the next season he responds by having the best season of his life, has the manager not succeeded in his job?
Complete bollocks – the reason Barry did not join last summer is that between Parry and the American owners, they monumentally ballsed up the transfer- the player wanted to come, the managed wanted him to come but the suits would not pay the money and could not get the deal done – That’s why Benitez has insisted he has more control over transfers this year
Somewhat naive comment Red Alert if I may say so. Clubs regularly give out a price for a player that they know is higher than buyers would want to pay to put them off. That is no indicator of a desire to sell, very often a clear sign of a desire to keep!
As for Rafa admitting he tried to buy Barry, that is a media ‘quote’ and nothing more. It is actually a question of taking what Rafa did say and extrapolating out of it something he didn’t actually say.
Whether he wanted to buy Barry or not, this does not indicate a desire to sell Alonso. Tere are a couple of factors worth considering here:
1. Rafa knows he has got to protect his squad as well as he can but also that if a player insists on going, it is mighty hard and some would say pointless to try and force them to stay. Thus keeping his options open in ensuring we had a replacement for Alonso was prudent.
2. Rafa, like all the other sides with a large number of foreign players (that is all the top sides!), has got to keep in mind that having more Brits in a squad might become compulsory so a desire to buy Barry is as much a result of this as any desire to sell a top quality Spanish player.
Purple Aki: before pointing out the speck of dust in someone else’s eye, take the plank out of your own! You point out that Freddy got two letters the wrong way round (yes, it’s Riera, not Reira) yet you show a lack of rudimentary grammar skills by typing Liverpool (proper noun) with a lower case first letter! It’s no big deal, any more than misspelling a player’s surname is, but I point out your own error to make the point: this is a message board, we are not taking part in a spelling bee or a typing competition!
Spot on article, and if you add in how Robbie Keane was treated says it all really, but as usual with the fat spanish waiter it’s always someone elses fault……………FACT
Red Alert knows that every statement made by Real Madrid representatives is the plain unvarnished truth.
If only the rest of us were as gullible as RA.
Jase… the question that you should be asking yourself is why was the asking price higher than what Rafa thought they would pay? Perhaps he doesn’t want to sell. Me thinks you have a grievance with Rafa rather than looking at the facts!
Red Alert. Rafa is not a liar, Barry has also said he thought that going to Liverpool may harm his England chances as he may be played out of position, which seems to me he wanted to keep Alonso while signing Barry and playing hiom at left back or at left midfield. Also just because liverpool have quoted an asking price doesn’t mean they intend to sell him but if a player wants to leave you try and get as much as possible for him, like Man UTD for Ronaldo. I do not think Alonso would be too massive a loss as we have a better midfielder in Stevie Gerrard but I would love him to stay all the same, as that would mean Stevie could still player further forward with Torres.
“Now Benitez has criticized Barry, by saying that he has just moved to Man City for the money, but could it be that he didn’t want another summer of Benitez and O’Neill haggling about his price again?”
No. It’s COMPLETELY about the money. Come on man, it’s clear you’re just trying (and failing) to stir up controversy…
Lofte he he saw that after i sent it sorry Babel not Babbel i know
Purple Aki sorry again
I think that Benitez Is only trying to stall the signing of Xabi inorder to recieve the highest possible bid from Real’s Perez. Why else would he be trying to get silva to Anfield. I can assure you that you will see Xabi leave this summer to real Madrid.