WHEN Rafa Benitez signed Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso back in 2004 for £10.5 million from Real Soceidad, little did we know how influential his presence would be in Liverpool’s midfield during his five year stint with the Anfield Club.
I know people are going to say that maybe his first two years at LFC he was not as consistent in his overall play than during his latter years before leaving for Spanish giants Real Madrid. But don’t forget Frank Lampard broke Xabi’s ankle with a bad tackle during a league game at Anfield on New Year’s Day in 2005 which disrupted his first season.
For me, he made Liverpool tick and helped us become one of the best European sides and was an integral member of the team that challenged domestically for the League Title in 2009 (we were very unlucky not to win it that year and who knows what heights the team could of gone and achieved together).
I’m afraid that when Xabi left in the summer of 2009 that was when the wheels fell off the bus so to speak for Liverpool. His departure left a gaping hole in our midfield, which sadly has never been filled. Alberto Aquilani, Christian Poulsen, Charlie Adam and now Joe Allen have been bought but have sadly failed in that position.
Who remembers his passing master-class against his current employers Real Madrid or his famous equaliser on that momentous night in Istanbul or even succeeding were Pele failed by scoring from the halfway line not once but TWICE! They seem distant memories considering what has happened since – management changes, the turbulent end to Hicks and Gillette’s reign as owners of our club, the takeover by FSG and now a team not maximizing its full potential.
All these factors have seen Liverpool fall away to ‘mid-table obscurity’. The Rafa reign crumbled, the annual team photo at Anfield didn’t look the same – in fact Liverpool was never the same.
Fast forward four years our former midfield maestro has won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana with Real Madrid, two European Championships and of course the 2010 World Cup with Spain.
The question is would the 2003 Spanish Player of the Year make a hero’s return to LFC?
I know principle owner John Henry has gone on record and said:
“spending is not merely about buying talent. Our ambitions do not lie in cementing a mid-table place with expensive, short-term quick fixes that will only contribute for a couple of years. That ethos is to win. We will invest to succeed. But we will not mortgage the future with risky spending.”
Xabi is now 31 and doesn’t fit the methodology set by FSG, but the benefits of a return in the summer are non quantifiable. He is the heartbeat of Real Madrid even keeping Luca Modric out of the side. He is also a major force in Vicente Del Bosque’s Spanish Side – he is the second highest goalscorer during his tenure.
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He still tackles, wins possession but most of all he can still PASS the ball majestically. Xabi is exactly the player we need, his command and authority just in front of the back four is something that LFC could benefit from. What his presence could offer the current team is that it would allow Steven Gerrard to focus solely on what he does best – his attacking responsibilities. Gerrard has had to play in a deeper position at times because the club have not had a strong holding player who can mop up opposing sides attacks just as easily as he can start them. In fact some of the pressure maybe lifted off our captain to may even enable him to start producing the sort of attacking performances which his reputation has been built on.
Xabi’s experience and knowledge would be vital as at times this season that has what has been missing from our midfield and it would assist players like Allen (show him how the role/position should be played as it is sometimes not always about a sideways pass) and Henderson to take their games to the next level.
He has passing and creative skills from any point in the midfield area; an example: the diagonal balls he plays creates the space for Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema at club level and for the forward three that play for Spain. This would suit Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and even Fabio Borini when fit. Xabi can spot a pass whether he has picked up the ball off the back four or even if he is supporting the attacking players and pressing the opposing team in to their own final third.
Alonso featured on Football Focus in February 2013 and during the transmission of the program Gary Lineker summed it up in one simple tweet ‘huge error from Liverpool letting @xabialonso slip away’. Every fan who wears the Liverbird with pride still clings on to his every move and yearns for him to make that heroic return which shows what a marvelous, gifted player he still is.
There is one player that FSG should rip up their transfer manifesto for and that is Xabi Alonso. And as Xabi said to LFCTV’s very own Claire Rourke during an interview for LFC at the Bernabéu when the question was asked: ‘would he ever return to Liverpool?’…”Never say never!”
Xabi the Kop is waiting to welcome you back with open arms YNWA!
Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG
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Sign him, bring him back to Anfield ASAP!!
Please God.
welcome back xavi…YNWA
welcome Alonso back to liverpool
Yes, Alonso is good and bring him back if FSG is supportive of the idea. But if that’s not going to happen, why can’t the coaches train Allen or whoever that takes on that position to pass intelligently???
It is not in training but inborn.
Go and bring him back he long to us even spend the whole money for him to be back thank u mr coach or u have see another fliop play u want sign again
Go old now to expect him to be the player he was at lfc
So the fact that he is good enough for the best International team in the world doesn’t matter because you say he’s too old?
Don’t you remember Gary Mac ?
Was the best player over 2 legs against utd. He’s still got it andwe can afford him. We need rogers and all our top players to plead with fsg. Anymoney spent on xabi is money well spent. And we all know he’s slow always was so getting older doesn’t won’t affect him as much as others.
too old ? how old were mc allister ? sign him now he was the most important player with gerrard since souness
He does not need to take a paycut in my opinion. First of all the man is a Marquee name. He is going to help lpool sell even more merchandise and help us make the money to pay him with. He also is a hell of a talent, whose leaving of lpool was a negative turning point for the club. If he decides to come to lpool and team up with Gerrard again, he will be able to also pass on great advice to youngsters and inspire them. Having Xabi Alonso in a team pays for itself.
Please bring him back and pay him what he wants and do not be shortsighted. In fact I am surprised (if true) that his basic is only £80,000 a week.
Brendan and the board, I hope you are reading this.
Would be great. But it would mean Rodgers dumping his pet rat Allen , and I can’t see that happening
No rodgers isn’t sentimental nor bias.though allen is minute compared 2 his fee.
Get xabi home. We need him
In support of Des,lfc should not hesitate a minute in bringing our living legend(Alonso) back.I’m surprise his pay Is £80 a week.so is that supposed 2 be debatable 4 his quality with lfc?pse sign him sharp.YNWA Xabi!
In the first paragraph you contradicted yourself mate! It took Xabi 2 years to come good and he suffered a big injury in his first season. Then you go on to say joe allen hasent lived upto expectations? surly by your reasoning he should be given atleast another season to be judged?
As for alonso i would love to see the guy back! I have to admit after that opening gambit i stopped reading as opinion and conjecture are all too common place on the internet today! i do love the blogs and the social media but peoples opinions don’t interest me as much as cold hard facts? We would alo love xabi back but to compare xabi and joe allen is ridiculous!
YNWA
Alonso will always be a fans favourite and a great player but our club should not go backwards.
We are building for the future
Rodgers is a good manager, he is just young and nieve. And needs to shut his mouth more and let his team do their talking on the pitch as every time he praises team and says how far we have come and where he hopes us to push on and go for this or that position in league, we end up not showing in the next game and getting turned over.
The main problem at club is lack of squad class, depth, experience and quality. And the owners need to innvest heavily in playing staff (£95-£110M) is needed.
Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle have all got better stronger squads than us. That is why over the last 5 seasons we have finished between 5-8 place.
We have not been in champions league for 5 years now and that is because we have had pathetically weak squads over the last five years and we keep selling or class, world class players and replacing them with Average Hard working players instead.`
And in the summer all them teams will strengthen again, B Rodgers has shipped out 12 players since he joined our club ( Adams, Aquilani, Aurelio, Bellamy, Carroll, Cole, Doni, Kuyt, Ngoo, Rodriguez, Spearing and Wilson). 4 are loanees though.
But Rodgers has only been able to replace 5 players: Allen, Assaidi, Borini, Coutinho and Sturridge.
There is still 3-5 players who should have been brought in to cover the hole the other 7 players who were shipped out have left within squad.
But B Rodgers needs to ship out 6 more dead wood average hard working players in the summer:
1: GK : B Jones 2: CB: Coates 3: RB: Flanagan
4: DM: Spearing 5: FD: Borini 6: FD: Carroll
Then in the summer the owners should give B Rodgers £95-£110M to bring in Ten/10 players to change whole dimension of squad and get club back competing against the elite. Nine/9 Good class quality players and one Marquee world class signing.
And Here are the 10 players that should be brought to our club this number and with these players we will be able to mount serious champions league challenge:
Five Defensive Players:
1: GK: M Vorm(29) Of Swansea For £2-£4M to compete and Cover Reina
2: CB: A Williams(28) Of Swansea for £7-£10M to compete with Skrtel
3: CB: A Pearce(24) Of Reading on Free Transfer to compete with Agger
4: LB: A Cissokho(25) Of Valencia for £4-£7M to compete with Enrique
5: DM: E Capoue(24) Of Toulouse for £6-£10M to compete and Cover LUCAS
Five Attacking players:
6: RW / RWF: J Montero(23) Of Monarcas Morelia in Mexico for £3-£6M to compete with Assaidi and Sterling next season
7: LW / LWF: D Capel(25) Of Sporting Clube De Portugal should be brought for £4-£7M to compete with Downing.
8: LWF /LW: B Arfa(25) Of Newcastle should brought in swap deal with A Carroll(23) and £10M to compte with Capel and Downing, then club would have three quick left footed pacey wingers competing with one another.
9: AM: MARQUEE SIGNING: Isco(20) Of Malaga for £14-£18M to compete with Coutinho and Suso in a
free role in front of central midfielders and off the Striker in side.
10: FD: C Benteke(22) Of A Villa for £15-£18M to compete with Sturridge and Suarez, to bring club/squad different option in attack a Plan B when Plan A may not be working out for us.
These 10 players would get club back amongst elite and competing for top 4 every year, it will also keep every player on their toes and at their best level week in week out and the incomplacency our club/players have had over last five years would be eradicated because of the quality competition waiting to get their chance to get in team and stay in team.
No Player would be safe for benching and the INCOMPLACENCY Within side would no longer happen.
These 10/Ten players would cost our club less than what Chelsea spent on these 4 players: Torres, Mata, Hazard and Oscar. Than What Man United spent on these 5 players: Rooney, Van Persie, Nani, Young and Valencia. Than what Man City spent on these 4 players: Tevez, Aguero, Nasri and Silva.
Those ten/10 players would strengthen squad dramatically and would bring 2/3 class, quality players competing and battling for one position and it would take our club back to the top again.
And our club do not have do a chelsea, Psg, Man City , Bayern Munich and spend over £250m+ over two seasons to get back to top. Our club just needs owners to dip in their pockets huge once but the right players need to be brought to club.
Then if these players were brought to club this summer, after we get back in champions league reckoning the every season a Marquee signing could be brought to club.
This is not Fantasy football thought, in last five seasons how far off points have we been of united? And they are our biggest rivals in english football, the only problem is while they are still at top of league and fighting for league year in year out. we are now struggling to get in top 5 every year.
And some huge/major investment in the playing staff/squad this summer if we are to close the gap on United, City and Chelsea. City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Newcastle and Tottenham all have much better squads than us and they will all strengthen in summer. Our club needs a huge influx of players going outwards and a huge influx of players coming inwards.
And then with those ten players mentioned our club would be able to kick on and compete at the top of the league again from start of season all the way through until the end of season. Consistency is needed to win league and to do that, we need good class quality powerful squad with depth within it.
Go back and play FIFA ….. This is laughable … Lol I’m in stitches
Stan lets just prove how far away we are from our rivals in squad class quality:
City: Attack: Nasri, Silva, Yaya, Dzeko, Tevez, Aguero, Milner and Sinclair.
United: Valencia, Nani, Young, Kagawa, Giggs, Wellbeck, Rooney, Hernandez and Van Persie.
Chelsea: Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Marin, Moses, Torres, Ba, Lamaprd and Ramires.
Arsenal: Giroud, Podolski, Cazorla, Chamberlain, Diaby, Rosicky, Gervinho and Wiltshire.
Tottenham: Dembele, Bale, Lennon, Dempsey, Sigurdsson, Adebayor and Defoe.
Newcastle: Arfa, Cabaye, Gouffran, P Cisse, S Ameobi and M Sissoko.
Our club have two strikers who will score goals: Sturridge and Suarez. Gerrard will score the odd goal here and there and Coutinho will come good and set premiership alight for many years ahead. But where else in our squad is there real class quality in our attack, Only these four players could make it in any of the sides above and yet us fans all wonder why we are so far off united in last five seasons, while they have four quality strikers we have two, while they have two to three good class players competing for every position, we have one good player and one dud player fighting for the position in side.
Some serious surgery is needed to the playing staff at club and its not funny, even QPR, Stoke, Sunderland and west Ham spend more than £29M in transfer window and they are all relegation candidates.
You forgot Reina if you are calling Jones deadwood then Pepe no saves must go too.
Our best players have no real class quality competition keeping them on their toes and putting in fear in them that if they play badly the person who comes in is of same calibre or better and it would be hard for them to get their place back in side.
If Reina has poor game, he is miles better than Jones so he plays next game if he is injury and suspension free.
If Johnson has bad game, he is miles better than Wisdom and if fully fit and injury and suspension free no matter how bad he plays he will be in team next week.
And this could be said about all our key best players in side: Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Enrique, LUCAS, Gerrard and Suarez.
COMPLACENCY HAS SLIPPED IN SIDE OVER LAST FIVE SEASONS as there is no real class quality competition for places within squad.
Our best players know deep down the players they are competing with they are much better than and even if they do have bad game they will be back in side next week as on bench is worse and not of similar quality.
would Allen, Henderson, Downing, Sterling, Borini, Shelvey, Suso, Wisdom, Robinson get into any of the teams fighting for top 4 every year?
I Love my team but the players i mentioned would struggle to get in the starting line ups of these teams: Norwich, Southampton, Swansea and West Brom let alone the likes of Man City, Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Then ask yourself would their attacking players walk into our team with ease? YES
Denis above has got it all sorted,fill in a dossier mate and send it off to fsg,even though your a chancer they just might fall for it like
they did with brendan,i just love people like you
who knows the answer to the problem of making our
team great again,kenny failed,(though i think given time….brendan will fail,(borini,allen two
simple reasons)come on these sites like the all knowing oracle,maybe you could become the pm and
sort out this austerity b.lls,,t mate?he,he.
Your comical, its not rocket science why we haven’t won league in 23 years mate. Its we haven’t had good powerful squad, the great loverpoll of old had 2 to 3 good class players fighting for very position in side and if a player in team got injured or suspended the player who came in was of same calibre and class or better and would make it his lifes work not to be put back on bench and that is why liverpool were so great in the past.
That is nowhere near the case now and that is why our best players are so complacent, Look at United Rooney is now being on bench and behind wellbeck and Rooney has to stay on his toes he is not a dead cert, but if suarez has bad game or two who is good enough to put him on bench. No one, no depth in squad.
Lack of class, quality and depth in squad is why instead of competing for league with United, City and Chelsea every year we are now competing to get in Top 6 every year.
Its not Fantasy football its facts
Rodgers shipped out 12 players since he joined and he has only replaced 5 of them.
Another 4 players , plus two of the loanees should be shipped out and then the 10 players i mentioned should be brought in.
How do you think Tottenham became the side they are today? When H Redkanpp took over them narly 4 years plus ago they were in bottom three now, look at them . why? Because H Redknapp changed whole nucleus and dimension of side/squd within two and half years in his time he must have taken 17 players there and shipped out 10
Well said.
Alonso in if possible – the totally useless wimpy Allen OUT !!!!!!!!
We need seriously savvy investment in the summer. I’m not saying we should be spending £20m a player, we can’t compete with the CL teams and I can’t see FSG sanctioning such moves.
Our scouting network should be uncovering next season’s unknown gems.
Think Benteke and Mitchu this season, or Ba and Cisse etc last season. Plus there’s some great players who’s contracts are running out like Honda.
A really savvy bit of Summer transfer dealings and we could fully strengthen our squad in all the necessary departments with quality players…
Wishful thinking, I know!
Savvy ??? Yes .I agree
But savvy is not wasting 33 million on total rubbish like Rodgers did last summer
Rodgers can NOT be trusted with any more money .he is clueless