players i miss

Alonso all the way.... I could not believe we were after Gaz baz and how Alonso must have been feeling. Just watching him stroke a ball around and his passing ability is just incredible. Every team needs that kind of guy that can break down defenses, keep the play ticking along, short or long is doesn' matter.

Also miss his almighty butt cut he had!

 

I was just thinking I should move the Flying V to the Crap Players thread but now it's all gooey I think I'll leave it.

 

I love the guy but there's been a lot of revisionism on Alonso.

I imagine he wasn't too chuffed that only Juve offered only £12m when he was first available. Where was the football management community for this midfield genius? We only asked for £16m. It wasn't Rafa's fault nobody was interested. £80m for Ronaldo and £56m for Kaka puts Real's £25m into perspective.

He'd been injured for a long time, came back and got injured immediately.

Rafa wanted Barry and Keane or just Barry, not just Keane.

Barry had just replaced Lampard in the England team and his partnership with Gerrard turned Euro Qualifier results around until Croatia, when McLaren put Lampard back in and we all know what happened. Barry isn't a better individual player than Lampard but he formed a better partnership with his old mate Gerrard.

Gerrard rates Barry in his book and says the England seniors at the time they joined the squad also rated him as a player.

Barry scored twice as many goals as Alonso in the time Alonso was at Liverpool and he did it in a poorer squad.

Craig Bellamy became City's best player with Barry behind him.


So despite Alonso being loved for his spectacular passing and spectacular 'own half' goals I can see why Rafa wanted Barry. And haven't people been saying lately, "No player is bigger than the club"? I'm sure Rafa didn't want to lose Alonso but when we were called a two-man team by wums neither one was said to be Alonso. After he'd gone we suddenly became a one-man team and his leaving supposedly caused all our problems. Rafa was unfortunate that Aquilani didn't work out because by the end of the season he was starting to show he could be a worthy Alonso replacement.