When you make a thread saying this is funny it's a brave move lol. But that is quality. Cheeky bid for immobile
I liked him before that. I always admired how he persevered when he was the scape goat that our fans used to pick on mercilessly during his early days. He always had the best attitude and there was always a glimpse as to what he would become.
And yet, unlike Lucas, neither of them were voted Player of the Season. Another winner was Dirk Kuyt and both players fitted the Shankly definition of a Liverpool player: willing to run through a brick wall and come out fighting on the other side. He never mentioned anything about playing Hollywood passes and scoring from the halfway line. Lucas and Masch were both top five in the league for successful tackles and passes at the same time. Of course the usual suspects will repeat the tired old myth that "he only passed backwards and sideways." Even if that were true, which is easily disproved*, a backwards or sideways pass is not necessarily a bad thing. Given a defensive midfielder's job is primarily to break up attacks before they get to the danger area, then a successful tackle followed by any pass to a teammate is fundamentally to be welcomed. It certainly was by his teammates, who seemed to value him much higher than fans eager for more visible excitement. Of course Alonso was much better looking, so perhaps there's some latent homosexuality going on with his popularity. It certainly wasn't evident among Europe's elite managers when he was first put up for sale. The asking price was £16m. Only one offer was received for this "midfield genius," for £12m from Juventus. This seems to have stuck in Alonso's craw and caused him to have his best season, which prompted Real to make an offer the following season of £25m. However, at the same time they paid £80m for Ronaldo and $56m for Kaka, so perspective and all that. It should also be noted that Lucas played under five different Liverpool managers. Gerrard was the only other player to do that. We paid £5m for him and got £5m for him at the end of his career. We got our money's worth. Alonso was much loved but the criticism for Lucas was unwarranted. * My fave Lucas moment: 2009 against Utd, when he plays a forward pass to Kuyt, then runs past Evra to receive the ball back, then plays another forward pass to Ngog, who slides it past Van der Sar and Reina runs the length of the pitch to celebrate.