Of course it comes as no surprise to anyone, but Alonso has officially handed in his transfer request today. Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, it's going to be very exciting to see how Rafa responds to this.
There's no way a manager of his stature doesn't have a contingency plan for something like this. All sorts of different players are being linked with us, such as Martinez, Aguilani, Catermole, and also Da Silva. None of them are direct replacements for Alonso, nor do they need to be. Our style of play, can and will adjust to his departure.
I'll always have very fond memories of Alonso. But like I've said before, bigger players have left us in the past, and we walk on without them.
34 comments:
I knew this would happen and I feel a little sick about it.
If Mascherano follows him to Spain then we are completely f**ked in the league this season.
I agree we will be absolutley f*cked - Most of our play goes through alonso, hopefully we won't resort to going long again
Dont forget that we were all okay with the fact alonso was going to be sold 1 yr ago when he was shite, no difference now except we have got £20m more to get a replacement thats better than barry. why is everyone soo upset??
BTW if mascha goes as well we are fu*ked!!
i wish people would stop panicking, we haven't kicked a ball in anger yet and everyone is saying we've no chance. you have to trust Rafa he will not let us down
Its a bit crappy of Alonso to wait until the season has nearly started to hand in this request. Forget all crap last summer between him and Benitez. He owes us Liverpool fans a little more respect.
to be honest more concerned that Masch goes... he for me is the best in the world at what he does.
Alonso although a fine player who has had an excellent season, is easier to replace. Gerrard back in there for starters.
agree with other comments, if we did that maybe go for someone like Silva to give us that extra quality going forward.
remember what happened to the last player who went to Madrid from us, now what happened to him!!! :-)
about time Alonso stopped messing us around.. if he wants to go, get our £30M for him, regardless of Madrids whinging and move on. so pleased to see the request go in and we can all move on.
hope Masc doesn't follow him though
Lets hope that Alonso is the new Keegan. We were down when he left but look what we got to replace him a little diamond called King Kenny. I wish Xabi all the best and if his replacement has half the success that Keegans did we will all be happy.
There is only a couple of weeks left before the season starts. This is really inconvenient. We need the rest of the team to pull together during the bedding in period for whoever else signs for us.
We will be losing a great player who will be hard to replace but i do believe that if Rafa did not have somebody in mind already he would not allow Alonso to leave seeing that he has 3years left on his contract.
It was sooooo obvious that he was going even tho I feel sick about it, if Masch goes I will be gutted.
As someone else stated Rafa will have a contingency plan up his sleeve so don't panic just at the mo even tho I think the title with Al and Masch was a cert.
@Marcus - I really don't want to even consider Mascherano leaving this summer.
@Simon - inconvenient, maybe, maybe not. Alonso was great for 2 seasons, but not so great for the other 3, which makes him very replaceable.
Those 2 seasons he was great, we won the CL league and then had our best run ever in the Prem League
*cries*
@Conal - touche ;-)
But we didn't do too badly (points wise) in a couple of the other seasons, and we've a much stronger squad these days...
Que sera sera! We just have to get over it and move on. Liv'pool FC is NOT a one-man team. It will be different without him but we can adapt and who knows, it could be a blessing in disguise and we might be better!
yes he's a good player!yes we will miss him!so don't all lfc fans trust rafa?don't u think he will get a younger and better replacement for alonso?my answer is wait we'll be surprise!the master will strike gold.
@Conal - just thought I'd also mention that last season, Alonso was missing for 12 league games (including our 4-1 thrashing of Man Ure). We won 7, drew 4 and lost 1 which on average comes close to an 80 point season...
@titanl - exactly :-)
contracts seem to mean nothing these days. couldnt have timed it worse. i just hope rafa has a replacement lined up otherwise we will have a big gap to fill.Stevie will be pulled back to the middle so we will have to fill the second striker role. i know Beni is a great player but not a world beater and Lucas certainly hasnt set the world alight.I agree with most of you though id be gutted to lose masch, there isnt a better player in his position in the world of football.
Rafa has called the request in to stop the affair dragging on. Madrid have to stump up for a "key" player. If they dont meet our cash demands then thats the end of it.
Its a bit suspicious that arbeloa went through yesterday cheaply though.
£28m plus Negredo would be a start.
@kev oman - I still like the look of Lucas and think he could become a decent enough player, maybe this will be his season (I hope).
Can't wait to see who else signs for us now :-)
it is a shame that Alonso will be going but we need to make sure that we get the full asking price for him, we have no reason to cave in to Madrid, 30mil is the going price for someone of Alonso's ability but remember he is not a matchwinner and can be replaced. However, if Madrid don't want to pay 30mil for him then they don't get him...it really is that simple, especially with the world cup coming up next year and he'll need to be performing regardless of what club shirt he is wearing this season
where is the loyalty cannot lose bth alonso and marsh it will be hard but 'we will never walk alone"
@CarragherforKing - I hope we get 30m for him but I suspect Real might go for a player plus cash deal. If they do go for that, I hope we end up with a better deal than the last time we tried that (remember Nunez).
@dave - I still don't want to even consider the possibility of Mascherano also leaving this summer.
very big effect to our striking force. gerrard can go upfront because alonso & masch behind him.
Walk On REDS!!
I'm surprised rafa hasnt asked about schnieder or Van de vaart to be part of deal. It would save alot of hassell and they are both very good players who i think would fit into our team no problem at all. I'm sure they would be interested.
@kev oman - they're both good players, but I guess Rafa just doesn't fancy them as fitting into what he wants to do with the team...
on the newsnow website, one of the sites on there is saying that were being offered £25million plus one of 3 players(van de vaart, hesselink or negredo) may be a good deal to take seeing that we will need a replacement for Alonso. Real will have to stump up what we want though,were in a win win situation really.If he stays he will have to play well to get into the spain world cup side, and if he goes they will have to pay top dollar.
@kev oman - I really hope the whole thing gets sorted out asap, so we can focus on the season ahead...
I'm glad the saga is over, though we did lose a good guy. anyway, he gave us some great times and i hope we get someone good in his place.
@Idle Wild
Why are you talking in the past tense?
Alonso hasnt been sold yet, nothing has been signed yet. It's over till we see him in a white shirt paraded by football's biggest Pimp Senor Perez.
Till they cough up £30m, which they are unwilling to cos its not commercially viable never mind the fact that Alonso is one of the world's greatest footballers(!), Xabi is going nowhere.
its a win/win situation for Rafa & LFC after being shafted by Fake Ass Madrid over McManaman and Owen.
BTW Barca have given up Mascherano
Who's to say that Real wont over Alonso??? Remember last summers protracted Ronaldo saga anyone?? This is why rafa wont accept player exchanges just straight cash
Wake up People!
@Idle Wild - it's not quite over yet but hopefully one way or the other it will be very soon ;-)
Nothing has changed. Last year Xabi was on his way to make way for Barry. He stayed.
Madrid are in a financial mess of their own making and have to offload before they buy and this is the shrewdness behind rafa's refusal to accept player exchanges.
After all Real's season-long pursuit of Ronaldo didnt culminate him leaving old trafford last year(!)
Till he signs nothings happened.
The media are stealing the smallest stories from each other and filling dead air with "BIG" stories till something actually happens.
Alonsa has been a very good player since his arrival at anfield but if he has to go, so we say that the door is opened and no one will stop him.
We are losing a good player but we still have Gerrard.
Come on the reds
@T777 - I wish it was all sorted out already...
Xavi Alonsa thats a new one!!
Just negiotating at the moment
Rafa doesn't want him to leave if Real dont meet our demands then he will stay for another season like Barry did with Villa.
Nice to see that we wont crack under pressure from real any more.
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