Alonso's in Singapore pre-season before he asked to leave
They may not have always seen eye to eye, but the man who handed in the first formal transfer request at Liverpool for some years has publically backed Rafa Benitez as the right man for Liverpool.
“It is not the Liverpool way to sack a manager after a few bad results early in the season.
“They have full confidence in him and he is the right man for the club. He’s a great manager and certainly one capable of managing the squad that he has right now. It would not be a good decision to change the manager.
“I still have great respect for Rafa and I am very grateful to him for the five great years I had at Liverpool. He knows the squad very well and is working with the team on a daily basis. Benítez knows how to turn things around.”
Real Madrid’s manager himself is in a precarious position after several below par displays from the Madrid giants. Real’s own qualification in the Champions League is by no means sealed and the club were dumped out of the Spanish cup by 3rd division opponents.
Some fans continue to blame Alonso’s departure for our loss of form but Xabi himself was far more pragmatic about that.
“Everyone knows that in football, when things aren’t right, the best player is always the one who isn’t there, whether they’re injured, suspended or no longer at the club.
2 years ago today Liverpool annihilated Besiktas 8-0 at Anfield to turn around a terrible start in the Champions League group and get their 4th points from 4 games. Some fans may be interested to know that in that game there was no Xabi Alonso, and Andriy Voronin started up front.
Alonso was the best passer we had (but we must move on) without inside knowledge what has Aguilani got to do to get a full game– you can see him on the bench –looking raring to go–lets not forget he’s got to get himself into the Italian squad for the W/Cup
any way why would alonso come back to this circus. You wont see any big names for a while; unless of course they are injured like aqilani
All i’m saying is that Rafa forced Alonso to leave by trying to sell him to Juventus.However,it’s water under the bridge but we shouldn’t take him back because second time round it’s never the same.Lets wait and see what Aquilani can do.
I don’t think he has any plans of coming back nor the club of wanting him back, but it is good to hear a positive comment from him.
Thanks for your support Xabi but it would have been nice if you had still been here to help us out.Having said that i do understand that Rafa deceived you by trying to sell you two seasons back without your knowledge!.
Couple of things that are wrong with your oft infactual responses.
1. Rafa didn’t ‘deceive’ anybody. The clubs owners told Rafa that in order to raise the funds to purchase another midfielder and pay their salary he would have to sell Alonso.
2. He didn’t ‘try to sell him without your knowledge’. Alonso was fully aware of the situation at the time.
Frankly, I’m sick and tired of hearing all this ‘come back Alonso’ nonsense. The player handed in a transfer request. Far far better players than Xabi have left Liverpool. The red machine marches on.
Alonso had two dismal seasons before last year. Rafa was perfectly correct in trying to move him on as he wasn’t moving us towards a title. Turning up 1 season in 3 is not acceptable.
Reading some of your responses you would think Alonso left Liverpool having won us 5 titles. He didn’t. He had two good seasons in 5 years.
Get a grip. And for the above poster – take a little bit more care in your comments. You would make an excellent spin doctor for the owners the way you twist what actually happened.
In all fairness allot of his form was dogged by injury which made his impact harder so yes we did only get two good seasons out of him but he still had great quality.
I happen to agree with you that we should just forget him and move on which is what he did ‘eventually’ of his own accord and to believe that his departure is the reason we are in the form we are is naive at best.
While h happen to agree that the owners must have had involvement in Alonso’s departure i can only hypothesize as to what clearly happened and who was to blame as i am not and nether is any one person in full possession of the facts…. if you’ll pardon me for saying that surely the only ones who really knew what went on between Rafa and Alonso were Rafa and Alonso !
Rubbish!.Benitez tried to buy Barry and sell Alonso to Juv prior to that!.I’ve never said “come back Alonso” or crap like that so take less of whatever you’re drinking and realise that he did have a few poor seasons!
I don’t mind being a PR assistant for the owners either!
Not too sure what you are accusing Rafa of.
Are you accusing Rafa of attempting to sell Alonso without the players knowledge?
Are you suggesting the owners didn’t tell Rafa he needed to sell Alonso if he wanted to purchase Barry?
come back and turn things around
We still love you Xabi I know you probably wont come back but we’d be very welcoming if you did