interview with xabi alonso, how could you even invisage swapping him with gareth barry? xabi you belong at lfc,and i am sure left to fan power you would be back and i know in your heart it is still with us......................... yea ok rafa won us the champs league in 2005,but stuff him.
We need to remember how poor Alonso was the season before Rafa was thinking of selling him, I think that was a big factor in Rafa's decision to sell him. It was a poor decision by Rafa in hindsight but Alonso was poor in that season. Rafa should have tried turning his form around other than looking at Barry.
Sigh, here we go again. As luvgonzo says, poor season. Got injured long time, came back, got injured again immediately. His best season was the one he sulked in. Rafa didn't want to sell him, he had to in the sell-to-buy policy. Lampard is a better individual player than Barry but Barry had replaced Lampard in the England team and formed a very good partnership with Gerrard to turn Euro results around until England could again qualify. McLaren bottled it for Croatia and returned Lampard to the side. Oops. Barry outscored Alonso by two-to-one in every season Alonso was here. He could also play more positions. There were very good reasons for wanting Barry, especially as Rafa prepared his next five-year plan. When Alonso was first put up for sale we got one offer of £12m. Rafa rejected it. But Alonso didn't blame the transfer market for saying he wasn't worth the £16m we asked for, he blamed Rafa for daring to consider selling him. When Real paid £25m+ for him they also paid £80m for Ronaldo and £56m for Kaka. That is called perspective. He was a great player but from £12m to £25m+ in one season? Something's not right there. And finally, as has been said often this season, NO PLAYER IS BIGGER THAN THE CLUB!
it didnt work out, we've had a few good players that hadn't had a great time, Anelka Gerble Sisse Keane's transfer saga was a disaster. Crouch was good for us, Sissoko after the eye injury was never the same, he was looking really good up to that point.
