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Why I agree with Balague over our Lost Hero

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Many Liverpool fans have been hoping that Xabi Alonso will return and play for Liverpool. We even ran a story on OurKop.com about Xabi Alonso possibly returning to Liverpool but Guillem Balague has come out this week and squashed any hopes that we had about Alonso coming back.

Balague lists three reasons why Alonso will not be making a return:

1) Xabi Alonso is amont the top three or four players at Real Madrid: Mourinho counts on him and he`s one of the first names down on his team sheet. Real Madrid are not a `selling club` and will not be forced into selling a player in that situation.

2) When Xabi Alonso left Anfield, he enjoyed a substantial pay increase. For Liverpool to match his current pay scale would involve completely destabilising the Premier League club`s existing salary structure.

3) There has been no contact between Liverpool and Real Madrid regarding the sale of Alonso back to Anfield.

Those are three very good points that Balague has stated and I tend to take what the Spanish journalist says to be accurate. There is no doubting the ability of Alonso as he has turned out to be one of the best midfielders in the world. I will NEVER forgive Rafa Benitez for wanting to sign Gareth Barry and replace him for Alonso. That was one of the dumbest things Rafa ever did at Liverpool. Alonso never wanted to leave Liverpool but was pushed by Rafa and you can not blame him for that.

In terms of the second point about the money, I am not to sure how much Alonso is earning now but many high earning players today prefer to play in Spain because the tax is lower than in England. So to compete with whatever he is earning at Madrid would be difficult especially with FSG looking to cut down our wage bill.

So for now we can safely quash any speculation about Alonso coming back to Liverpool. But football is a funny game and the transfer market is even funnier…

This article was written by Ron and is courtesy of our partner website ourkop.com. Read the latest news and blogs about Liverpool FC at Our Kop. – ed

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28 comments

  • Goldneballs says:

    if we’d had the money to keep Alonso and buy Barry (instead of servicing debt repayments), the issue of selling (the twice seriously injured Alonso) would never have been up for discussion. but after that summer he went on to have his best season at Liverpool and his transfer fee trebled !

    was this not good man management by Rafa ??

    when Alonso did leave, he left for a massive contract and avoided the 50% tax we would had to have endured at Anfield. he said this himself !!

    i wish he was still at Liverpool, but he chose to leave and the lure of Real Madrid was too great.

  • Billy says:

    Yes FSG are looking to reduce the wage bill, but they wish to do this by getting rid of over paid squad players. I doubt they have any problem with pay the stars what they are worth. Thats what they have done with the Red Sox.

  • hobbes says:

    It’s not just the tax rates in Spain that are the issue. (In fact that’s going to cease to be an issue when the so called “Beckham Law” ends at the end of the season.)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckham_law

    The bigger issue is the exchange rate too.
    Where before a player earning £100k a week in England could convert that to E160k\E170k, since the economic crash and the subsequent dive in the value of the pound, that £100k is now worth only E110k.
    If you add in the tax hike from 40% to 50% for high earners (something I wholeheartedly support) it means that your Alonsos Ronaldos and Arbeloas of this world took an overnight pay cut of 30% – 40%
    In fact, Mascherano is taking home more at Barcelona than he earned at Liverpool, but Barca are actually paying less than Liverpool were for it.
    Even when the new financial fair play laws come in, there’s still going to teams who can effectively use financial doping purely based on the differences in exchange rates.

  • Boris says:

    You seem to dismiss two very important points which Rafa himself has continuously expressed as to the reason for Alonso’s attempted sale:

    1. Alonso had a poor season, he was judged to be getting worse, therefore they thought they should sell him in order to get as much as possible. Because of the tight budget that they were on this was a necessity in order to effectively bring in a replacement.

    2. Alonso’s poor season, coupled with the new nationality laws coming into place, meant that looking for english players in a similar mould were necessary if they were going to replace him. Don’t forget that Barry had been quite decent as a midfield general type player for many years up to that summer. Only now are we seeing how average of a player he is.

    Stop bringing up nonsensical spite against Rafa. Remember, he was the one that brought Alonso to the forefront of the world as a passer. Instead, congratulate and reflect upon that:

    I’ll never forget about how Rafa bought Alonso for only 10 million! What a buy! It’s a shame that things didn’t work out in the end. But man he sure did give us some good players!

    Stop being a negative nancy. Your negativity isn’t even grounded in reasoning, it’s just nonsensical.

  • Rory says:

    Yeah! Are you saying that Rafa wanted to sign Gareth Barry and replace him for Alonso!? you probably know nothing about how football works friend cause the reality is the opposite, here’s the truth, Rafa knows in january that Xabi was contacted by those ridiculous losers of real madrid and so he started to look around for a replacement, Rafa was the one who acquired Xabi and he knows better than anybody the quality of the player (and the man), and the reality is that Xabi has never say that he was forced to leave…you know why? because he wanted to leave

  • Mark Laffin says:

    Alonso had always regarded Liverpool as an ‘adventure’ , he was always going to move on. His clash with Rafa just speeded it up and he loved the project at Real Madrid. He still loves this club though. Don’t forget, he had TWO average seasons at LFC before having an exceptional one. Let’s all, as LFC fans. stop bickering, why do so many ‘fans’ hate Rafa, who put us back on the map. Without the CL win in 2005 where would we be? Could we have signed players of the caliber of our former no.9? We’d like to think we would have, but players like him move for titles and trophies. Three of our first rank stars left as soon as it proved we were unlikely to offer this on a regular basis. Let’s all move on, look to a bright future and stop bickering over the past. YNWA.

    • Rory says:

      Totally correct, and if in the past years we could had NESV and not HICKS & GILL (“the dynamic duo”) as owners, i’m sure that with Rafa we were able to win another Champions and a Premier…

  • Farrell1986LFC says:

    I dont understand what you all are getting at, why is everyone talking about Rafa either in a negative or positive sense. We have just signed Dalglish to a three year deal with a great future ahead of us. Im telling you now Alonso wont even be on Dalglish’s transfer list! You need to start publishing correct material!

    Its like me publishing a story called “Why we all know Cristiano Ronaldo wont come to Liverpool”

    1. We dont want him to! End of story!

    Poor journalism at its best.

    • Rory says:

      It’s just to remind to someone that Rafa has been (and still is) a great man and one of the top 3/4 managers around, and this must be remembered cause it seems there’s a lot of people that have foget this and what he has done with and for us

      • Farrell1986LFC says:

        Yer he was a good manager even great in his time with us, however you need ro read the facts and not fall blindly onto the champions league victory. By the end of his time here he was arrogant and demanded to be the centre of attention. Not only that then he went to Inter Milan and did the same exact thing! however this time he was told to get lost at the first sign of moaning. Now Im not saying he didnt do wonders for us but he’s in the past!

  • byrnesey says:

    C’mon lads,I respect Rafa for bringing us the champions league and improving our youth setup and getting us the likes of Pepe,Xabi and a couple more good players but I draw the line there.
    He waisted so much money on garbage players,had he spent the money more wisely we wouldn’t need so many new players.
    He had too many tactics and not enough common sense’he would never let us play with the freedom we have now under the king.
    His substitutions were so baffling at times.
    I just couldn’t be happier than I am now with king Kenny,the only way is up.
    Don’t take this the wrong way guys I do have a lot of respect for the work Rafa has done and he definitely deserves a lot of credit for our youths progress.

    • Rory says:

      Ok, but tell me where he wasted so much money, yes, keane and who else? he bought Xabi, Luis Garcia, Reina, Agger, Kuyt, Johnson all without much money, only Mascherano and Torres were bought for much pounds, but they were great players…and please don’t tell me Babel cause, first, everybody make some mystakes, second, i’m still thinking that sell Babel has been an error, i would prefer to see him one seasonon loan cause he’s still young and i’ll not be surprise if in two years Babel will become a great player and onestly i don’t understand why we don’t have gave him the same chance of Lucas…

      • Farrell1986LFC says:

        Because he was arrogant and believed he deserved a place on the squad! Lucas on the other hand gets on with it. Babel will never ever be a world beater. An apart from the other two, how about Mark Gonzalez, Jan Kronkamp, Josemi, Aqualiani (no matter what you say about Aqualani to sell Alonso and get a broken player in is ridiculous).

  • byrnesey says:

    Where do I start Nunez,Josemi,Kromkamp,Pennant,Keane,Mark Gonzales,Bellamy,Paletta,Dossenna,Crouch,Morientes,Riera,Leto,El Zhar,Zenden,Sissoko,Aquilani who is a good player but it was a ridiculous signing at the time.
    I agree with you about babel he was never given a real go in the team in his favoured position up front,like Cisse and Keane, why sign a striker to play on the wing.
    Although he didnt sign cisse I think had he of played him as a striker he could of been a success.
    I think he ruined Keane and Cisse to be honest.
    Morientes was another flop but at the time i dont blame him he was a great goalscorer.
    He has certainly signed some gems no doubt about that.
    His treatment of Xabi was shamefull and i think that was his downfall.
    Anyway we have the king now and all is rosey lets bring that league trophy back to where it belongs.
    YNWA in Kenny we trust!

    • Rory says:

      Yeah ok, i agree with all those names (no with Crouch and Pennant), you forgot Insua and Voronin 🙂 however for those players he hasn’t spend a lot of money, maybe 40/50 millions? everyone can make some mystakes, just think about fergie, 30 millions for Anderson and 35 for Berbatov…than Sissoko was acquired for few pounds and sold to juve for 11 millions, keane was a finished player after an injury unfortunately for us but still we sold him for more than the half price, if we’ll sell Aquilani there’ll be for about 15 millions ( acquired for 20 ), the only quite great waste of money by Rafa for me has been Riera…however as i told before, nobody doesn’t make mystakes…onestly, now i’m happy with Kenny, he has the knowledge and the carisma for the role and he’s always smilling and positive, i think that’s important for the players, and sometimes he’s even capable to make me laugh ( “PISS OFF ARSENE!”…great :] ), but someday i would love to see Rafa in the bench again

    • kibenko says:

      you say sissoko and riera i think those were good signings leto you cant judge him he never even had a sniff at anfield never even thought as a flop and i agree with you about cisse and babel….rafa’s mistake like u said was mistreatmnt of xabi anyway we have the King now no need to be worried ..ynwa

  • Chats says:

    Very very true…..if Rafa was in charge with these new owners, he too would have been allowed to spend the monies from the babel and Torres sales, whereas with those last muppets, and extra funds generated were used fir servicing debt!
    Don’t get me wrong cus I’m glad we’ve got KK at the helm but that doesn’t change the fact Rafa had to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. All well and good maybe occassionally but when ur competing againt other teams that spend money like water, there’s only so long before it crumbles. Rafa did well to keep it going as long as he did. And if Kenny restores us to our best….GREAT…..but I’m sure Rafa would gave done too WITH ANY KIND OF FUNDS. certainly not forgotten in my eyes YNWA

  • Rango says:

    Its not how much money Rafa had or was allowed to spend, I think in trying too hard to defend Rafa here a lot of people are missing the point that its the quality of football or rather the philosophy of football that have made all the difference since KK is back
    The last time we played with such freedom to attack was under Roy Evans, Houlier and Rafa did win us the occasional trophy but the football we dished out during their reign was terrible to endure for fans like me.
    KK have done exceptionaly well given the circumstances…Losing Torres,Gerard injured most of that time and so has record signing Carrol, Youngsters forced to cover during important matches…etc.(In my opinion Houlier and Rafa had better sides than Dalglish had since he came back)

    The football we have played is totaly different, under Houlier, Rafa.. we would never have allowed players like Meirless and Maxi,Kuyt to wander at scoring positions thus scoring at will, Rafa would have had them all to defend first.
    So stop defending Rafa blindly, the guys’ sacking was the first step to bringing the club forward.
    And stop blaming Roy H as he was only here for 6 months, its too short a period to bring destruction to a club like ours and the decline had already begun sometime ago, only fault of Hodgson was he coudn’t or not capable to reverse it….TILL THE KING ARRIVED.

    • Rory says:

      You probably don’t remember that in the season we ended in second position (with Rafa, we’ll see where we’ll finish next…) we’ve also played a great football winning a lot of games for 3-0 or 3-1, winning almost all the matches versus the other big threes and dominate all the small teams 9 times out 10…and don’t be so sure about those last two months, yes we are playing well now but this is a mix of mentality (thanks to Kenny) and great shape of a lot of of players that hasn’t played great part of the season, Maxi is a overrated player, now just because he has score 6 goals he’snot become strong, 5 of those goals were scored from two meters from the goal line…just one thing, remember that we’rein the end of the season, the other teams are in worst shape than us…

      • Rango says:

        I remember the season we finshed 2nd vividly like how he thinkered in midseason and cost us the title, if not his unnecessary changing and chopin the team we would have won the league and the scumsters would not have the balls to come to Anfield and unfold that banner.

        • Rory says:

          ok, we’ll see where do we’ll finish next year…when we’ll win a champions or a premier league you can talk talk guys but for now we’ve win with Rafa and that’s the bottom line

  • byrnesey says:

    Spot on Rango couldn’t agree more.

  • Arebee says:

    LoL Rangao

    So the crux of your post is

    Dont defend Rafa, defend Hodgson

    hahahaha

    • Rango says:

      1. ITS NOT RANGAO…ITS RANGO
      2. NEVER HAVE I SAID DON’T DEFEND RAFA OR DEFEND HODGSON.
      3.YOU SEEM NOT TO UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE POINT HERE.
      4. WHY BOTHER TO COMMENT SUCH SHORT POST.
      5.BEFORE hahahaha at others laugh at your self first!

  • a says:

    Xabi Alonso will return back to Real Sociedad for 2 or 3 years, to his real home.

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