Our midfield maestro
Inaki Ibanez, Xabi Alonso’s agent, has admitted that there is some cloud of doubt over where the reds midfielder will be playing his football next season.
Real Madrid are believed to be keen on trying to purchase the player for a fee of around £21 million, only if Florentino Perez is elected President.
According to reports Perez has sounded out the agent and will make an offer that Benitez cannot refuse – especially considering there was talk of the player leaving last summer if a figure of £16 million was on the table.
His agent said:
“Many things could happen in the summer.
“The first is to finish the season and after that to attend to other matters.
Xabi has signed for three more years and his future depends on Liverpool.”
Xabi Alonso has had a brilliant season for LIverpool, but this comes on the back of two relatively average seasons previously. If Benitez’ is yet again forced to play the numbers game by the Anfield hierachy, the reds may struggle to turn the cash down.
(Which obviously, we hope they do)
If a £20M+ bid came in, would Liverpool turn it down?
do not sell Alonso, if we do, Liverpool will be making a big mistake-selling a quaility player to buy Barry. I mean come on get real-Alonso is like Gerrard in the way he can inspire Liverpool to battle and fight on till the bitter end-Sami Hypia has the same quality. Take just one spark plug from an engine and it will still run but not the same. Better the devil you know. DONT SELL ALONSO!!!!
We should hang on to Xabi. Not only is he the backbone to the team but he is settled but still hard working. Look at what happens when you get rid of a good player (crouch) and bring in someone who is playing well elswhere, it dosen`t always go to plan. We do have a some dead wood that needs getting rid of but NOT Xabi
selling alonso??? god,this is madness in the highest order.if for 45million,not too good, but for 21m? na madness.we must’nt sell.he is our best.he, gerrarad, and torres is our best three.barry, can’t come in for him 2 leave.he is far much better than him.rafa must be careful not to make these deadly mistake.why not ofload babel,lucas,voronin,ngog,riera,dossena and other yanks and leave our play maker, ALONSO.
PLEASE LET ALONSO STAY … who will replace him or take his postion lucas
No! waY! End of story!
We should buy Stephen Ireland, forget Barry, hang on to Xabi, thats it the title and everything else is ours ! end of story !
we just cant sell alonso no way he’s the heartbeat of our team not even for 20m hes worth like 45+m let us not be pennywise and pound foolish pls rafa there is no way we can replace him for that price comon guys pls lets not sell xabi ;-(
Why we are going to sell Alonso? Selling your top performer is unthinkable. The funniest part is he worth more than 20mill. This days, 20mill doesnt get you a player like Alonso. Even it took as many years than expected to finish second place. But in other hand this shows that we built a better team than we had for the past couple of years. Its better to forget about selling Alonso and lets think about how we are going to build a better team for the next season. I think we need to build our team on a players like Alonso who has got a season long and growing perforamnce. Dont step back lets bulild a team that could win the title.
I agree with the majority of the comments already posted, we need to keep hold of our best and more consistent players. Alonso has been top this year in his position in the Premier league.
If the Premier league is the best league in the world then his services should come at a premium. He is worth way more than the quoted 20mil but see how things change in a season. Last year we were struggling for the Italians to pay more than 12mil for Alonso.
We can rely on him to do a job in the centre of the park and we cannot afford to sell him on. My only concern would be if he has off the field problems with the manager.
Sometimes players need to move on and it is not down to their football. If this is the case then we need to try and get the best price but also make sure we treat Alonso with the respect he deserves. If he prefers a move to Real Madrid for him and his family then we should give him this and capitalize on his success this season.
Silva, Vila and Barry for anfield…. Just imagine Vila and Torres up front… how juicy is that????
In order to compete with other top clubs we must not only sign quality but retain our best players!.Xabi has had a brilliant season so understandbly other top European clubs are sniffing around but we must resist and hold on to him!
Keeping Xabi is of far greater importance then signing Gareth Barry who Rafa seems to be obsessed with,the Spaniard is a far better player in my book then the Villa midefielder.By selling our best players we’re making it clear to our rivals that they’re for sale at the right price so someone may make a bid for Gerard and/or Torres too which we can’t refuse!
Wouldn’t mind seeing the back of Lucas,Babel and Dossena…perhaps even Riera but selling Alonso would be nothing short of madness!
Only thing I have to say is
KEEP ALONSO
and get rid of the YANKS
BUY SILVA or VILA
We seriously need another class STRIKER
DONT SELL ALONSO! Sell dossena,lucas,babel. Buy teves,glen jhonson,aaron lennon
Why sell, Alonso is a far better quality player than Barry, by far passing and tackling. If he wants to have a shot at the title next year he better hold on to the lad.
You can demonize the American owners, but let’s be honest: it’s gotten to be all about money, whether you’re talking American, Russian or Arab owners. If you don’t think EVERYONE (players included) don’t pay attention to the profit margin, you’re delusional. Sure guys want to win-owners want to win, too. But every sport that has a big fan base has got to consider the bottom line. If you don’t you’ll soon pay the piper and be broke to boot. I’d love to see Xabi stay. But if you think loyalty enters in to the picture as a primary concern, forget it. You’ve already lost him.
I wonder if Man City’s owners were considering the profit margin when they tried to buy Kaka for £100 million?
If Alonso goes, we’ll have nobody in our team that can get 7 opponents sent off a season.
I hope he could stay, but finances will dictate. If a bid comes in for more thatn 20 mil, he will be gone. We should then try and spend the money on getting Barry, David Silva and David Villa. These 3 players (if we could afford them) will take us to the title.
Im Sorry – Alonso is worth 35-40 million all day long. As one of the best passes of a football in the world – As one of the best midfield players in the Premier League (therefore the world) WHY would liverpool sell for well below his market value?? Especially as we need funds??
If we sell – it has to be for the right amount of money. £20M is not enough, it really is that simple
Selling Alonso would be a travesty as he is the dictator of our team, but we won’t get a better value for him than now. Maybe to sell him for £20M and get Javi Martinez and Barry, wouldn’t be so bad. But then, buying Barry and Martinez and NOT SELLING Alonso, would be the ideal situation………………………..
When did Liverpool become a selling club? Its alot of money but Alonso has been one of our best players this season.
I thought we were building a side that could win the title not become a club at sells because a few quid has been put on the table.
What does £20m get you these days????
Unless we use the cash to get another world class striker or a winger, keep him, hes a far better player an Barry!!
We could ask Real Madrid if they want Lucas for £20m???
With any luck the americans will get the next flight back to texas or wherever it is they emerged from, sell liverpool for market value and to people who actually give a **** about the club, the history, the tradition and the rivalries of the premier league. Why should a club of liverpool’s stature have to sell to buy? Embarrasing!! Manure can buy berbatov, loan tevez for £10M, anderson (cost a lot) etc, but they don’t have to sell. Of course, they have the advantage of extra capacity in the stadium and so forth, but they don’t have to do ‘surgery’ on their team each year! They can spend and genuinely improve their squad. We have to wheel and deal and take a chance on players ( pennant, dossena, riera, lucas, voronin, etc etc). Enough is enough. Pack up and ship out yanks.
I think it’s going to be difficult for Benitez to durn down 20m considering he wants Silva and Tevez. Maybe doing just this will allow us to get Tevez and Silva and with the 6+5 coming soon Barry will be a welcomed addition.
THEY SHOULD DO. But Liverpool and RAFA are pretty stupid so will probably take the money and buy BARRY, DOWNING and TURD to join the squad fodder.
IN ALONSO WE TRUST
They better had refuse it!
£20 million, whilst undoubtably a lot of money, is not enough for a player who was arguably our best and most consistent over the course of this last season. A player who in my opinion, we would struggle to replace even by using the entirity of that sum, on someone who would not necessarily even gel with the rest of the team.
We should not be in a position where we have to consider selling our top performers. Had the club not been dragged into debt by two greedy and incompetent owners, we would perhaps not be considering this particular headscratcher.
Whatever signings we are considering this season, I struggle to see which would effectively improve our starting XI and plug the particularly huge gap left in midfield should Xabi leave.
This is why we have slipped behind Utd in recent years. We have to sell to buy. Utd can spend £32m on the likes of Berbatov and not have to cash in on anybody. If rumours are to be believed, we’ll cash in on Alonso and 10 other squad players to raise the cash for Tevez and Barry. I hope we don’t lose Xabi, he’s been arguably the top signing Rafa has made in his time here and has been brilliant this season. Getting rid of such a quality player would represent a step back in my mind. As John Smith once, said, you never sell your assets.
No, simple as that. He is more or less the heartbeat of our team. At 21m it would be a steal. We shouldn’t consider offers of less than 30m as he simply isn’t replaceable. Why would a club aiming for the biggest of titles sell one of their best players. Simply doesn’t make any sense at all.
At 21 million I think he goes!
20m?? if real really wants him…he is worth nothing less than 35million. thats what he is worth to liverpool. one of the best and outstanding performers this season. N more to come…he goes at a price so we can buy some quality as well….not less than 35m