This article is written by James Murphy and is courtesy of our partner website FootballFancast.com. Read the latest news and blogs at FFC. – ed
In the summer of 2009 Liverpool football club thought they had successfully acquired a footballer that was going to light up the Premiership for years to come. How wrong could they be? Since Alberto Aquilani’s big money move from AS Roma to Liverpool the Italian has failed to reach any sort of form, and seemingly turned himself into arguably the Premier League’s biggest flop of the noughties.
Consequently, the midfielder now finds himself back in Italy playing his football with Juventus, slowly but surely rebuilding a career that seemed to have been destroyed during his short spell in England. It would be impossible to tell you whether his shocking time at Liverpool was the fault of then manager Rafa Benitez, the player’s injury proneness or simply just poor timing.
However, numerous factors have now changed, for example management on all levels, and the player is now fit and finding form again back in his home country. Given the creative ability he has shown in the past, was Hodgson’s decision to let him leave on loan during the summer a premature and ill judged one?
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Arguably Aquilani gained unfair critics during his time at Liverpool. The player was continuously compared to Kop favourite Xabi Alonso, and was furthermore played in positions less familiar. You could say the odds were stacked up against the boy from start.
One such fan believes Aquilani has the ability to produce defence splitting passes assisting the team’s strikers furthermore saying:
“Roy Hodgson plotted his own downfall the minute he loaned him out. Look at the effect Paul Scholes has on the game; he controls it from the centre circle, spraying balls to all areas of the pitch, mainly in the oppositions half. The goals are at each end of the pitch and we have two central midfield players in Lucas and Poulsen who only know how to pass the ball sideways, doesnt take a genius to work out where the problem is there.”
Is this fan alone in his opinion? Or would Aquilani’s return be unjustified giving his previous spell at the club?
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I couldn’t believe it when Roy decided to loan out Aquilani. I just don’t understand how that would benefit the team as we would lose a creative midfielder for an entire season and get nothing in return. Obviously when he returned from injury he wasn’t on form and didn’t live up to expectations but towards the end of the season we were able to see glimpses of his creativity and his ability to supply some nice passes in midfield. I thought this season he could finally adapt to English football and become one of our most important midfielders but it bewildered me when Roy loaned him out cause I just don’t see how that would benefit us. If we sold him for 15 mil or so then perhaps that would make sense but to loan him out and get nothing in return just doesn’t make sense to me. Plus, to think that Juventus get him for free for a season while we had to pay 5 mil for Poulsen is really a joke. I heard some rumours suggesting Roy may recall him in January which I hope is true but I doubt it. In the summer, maybe we can get 13 mil for him but if Juve don’t make the move permanent then I’d still look forward to him returning to the team cause I think he’s a quality player.
i actually think that we dont need him now.We have Gerrard and Meireles who are way better than Alberto.it would be great if we could keep Alberto for the bench,but Roy must be thinking something.he loaned Aquilani and doesnt play Agger a lot.that means he wants to get rid of injury prone players.Gerrard and Torres are injury prone,but they are the best players from the club.we wants to build a tought team and was unlucky to have players like Kuyt and Carragher get injured(who are well known of their stability and never getting injured).so get rid of Aquilani and Agger and having bought Meireles,buy a strong center back,Shawcross i would say.
Reina
Johnson Skrtel Shawcross Coentrao
Cole Gerrard Meireles Maxi
Kuyt/Babel/new striker
Torres
Subs:Jones,Carragher,Konchesky,Lucas,Jovanovic,Ngog,new striker.
Roy will regret this move. Roy would rather bring the like of Carlton Cole. I hope the Liverpool board are watching. The sooner they line up a world class manager for Liverpool the better. Hodgson can go on to some mid table club where his talents would be much better suite.
firstly alberto was not a flop. he was injured & the games he played he did well in. roy loaned him out coz roy didnt know who he was, the same way as we wont get arda turan or anybody outside of the prem bcos roy dont know players outside of prem unless the played in scandinavia. alberto was fully fit we could have saved ourselves 5mill by keeping him & not buying poulson. he should also have kept insua & not spent 4mill & 2 of our most promising under 18s. roy should have kept his mind on getting a striker which we needed most with the 9mill approx he spent he spent on those 2 he could have gotten a decent striker ( not carlton cole )& we would have been stronger as insua is better then konchesky & alberto better than poulson
When he finnally gets his Cole, let’s hope it gets him the sack.
so he wasted 9mill already this summer add this to the fact that he got offered van der vaart but wouldnt take he coz he couldnt fit him in the team goes to show hes not the manager to take us further. i hopeim wrong coz i always back our managers but the only thing hes done right is buy meireless
I was well surprised when we let Aqua go considering we were crying out for creativity in midfeild. I wouldnt mind if the guy came back to us especially when Stevie G gets injured or needs rested. How many other creative midfeild players have we got?
yep, Hodgson’s an idiot for loaning him out to Juve. As I follow Italian football, I’ve seen him play for Roma and Juve and at the moment I don’t think Liverpool will want to sell him to Juve in the summer because he’s playing really well. Him and Felipe Melo are forming a formidable partnership in the middle for Juve and it’s obvious that his great passing ability and vision complements Melo’s ability to break up play. Sending him out on loan will bite Hodgson up his backside.
Roy wld have sent out Messi and Ronaldo if he had them. He knows nothing. A vulcaniser wldn’t do worse
Considering the lad was starting to look a really good player towards the back end of the season I’d like to say I was surprised when that clueless moron let him leave, but I wasn’t, par for the course from Hodgson. Re Stavros, Meireles may or may not be all he’s cracked up to be but mark my words when Gerrard’s back that clueless muppet will play him wide right. I don’t like Camoli but I’ll say this for him, I’m glad he is in charge of spending the club’s money not Roy ‘never won anyhting to put him in Liverpool’s league’ Hodgson.
How can u people say Alberto Aqualani is a FLOP ?
If Aqualani is a Flop last year thn u can say that Joe Cole is a Flop signing of this year.
&
Roy is a Flop manager who can never handle a big club like Liverpool.
I hate u roy u ***. Nw u wil loan merieles and thn sell renia,torres to sme champions league club
joe cole is a flop…
a flop is someone who was expected to do well but didn’t so roy isn’t a flop as everyone knew he wasn’t gonna do well and he didn’t deserve to be at liverpool in the first place..
It has also to due with personal motivations for Aqua. He did not settle down to well in Liverpool.