Xabi Alonso has reportedly told his agent his future needs to be resolved by the 19th July, the day he is expected to return to pre-season training with Liverpool.
The player returned from the Confederations Cup straight to a meeting with his agent in Madrid. It seems the player is tilting towards a move to Real Madrid.
It is believed that Real have made an offer of around £23M for both Alonso and Arbeloa. Liverpool are looking for around £8M for Arbeloa and a minimum of £35M for Alonso – although some initial sources suggested Benitez had originally suggested £50M for Alonso.
Speaking to Spanish newspaper AS, Xabi said:
“I don’t know where I will play next season. In respect to all this, I have not closed any door.
“I don’t see why a marriage with Madrid is impossible, but I would also have no regrets at all staying at Liverpool.
“My relationship with Benitez is professional, just like he has with any other player. I believe that is how things will stay.”
Alonso had a great season last year, after two difficult seasons prior. It is unclear how highly Rafa Benitez rates the player however, and many people widely believe that Benitez would rather keep hold of Mascherano.
This transfer saga is, unfortunately, going to rumble on.
REINA
JOHNSON CARRGAHER AGGER INSUA
KUYT SILVA GERRARD MATA
AGUERO TORRES
THATS NOT BAD AND WITH SALES?
Alonso must stay!!!!! he was outstanding last season he will be a great player for us in the future.
The truth is am tired of this xabi’s saga,if he wana go then pls make it fast,i sure can use a support attacker 4 torres,then G wil cum back 2 midfield.wit or withot alonso we re strong.Y.N.W.A
i will go out on a limb here, lets give this a go, these two players below are class, but for some reason they have not settled and found the good form they had before moving to real.
this is a long shot but why not use this to our advantage, lets say we give alonso to madrid = snjeider and van der vaart plus 10 mill in exchange
then we give mascherano to barca= 40 mill
then we go out and buy augero with the money.
we then still have the money that rafa said we had before we have to sell anybody, remeber he did state that very clearly, that liverpool can buy before they sell.
id go for silva with that money, and with the sales of leto, voronin, dossena, arbeloa, itandge hobbs, anderson, etc that gives us 17 mill.
lets go for srna and grosso as supporting wing backs and that adds real depth the squad.
reina
johnson/ srna carragher/ agger skrtel/ grosso aurelio/ insua
kuyt/ benayoun snejider/ lucus van der vaart/ spearing silva/ reira
torres/ aguero gerrard/abbel
i know thats a shake up but why not if these two in alonso & javier want to go then we get in hungry players who in a world cup year will be hungry and want to prove themselves, ie. van der vaart will link up with kuyt and babel, aguero would like up with torres who he has massive respect for, srna is wanting to get to a bigger club and was great last year, grosso is italys best left back and way better than dossena, and hes good at filling in the middle. we could make this happen then we really have got a huge team with great players in every role.
A reasonable scenario, but let’s not forget that we play our best in the 4-2-3-1 formation, which allows our full backs to get forwards and masch to cover, and allows Gerrard the free role in which he excels.
4-4-2 has pretty much had its day in terms of attacking and opening up teams who park the bus, and I don’t think Aguerro would come just to sit on the bench.
I also think that the paper talk regarding masch and xabi is pure bull – they need to fill column inches, and because of the LFC hatred of Murdoch we are the target, with the rest jumping on the bandwagon.
When I see something on the official site, I’ll believe it – not before.
I think Lucas Leiva is the worst player in the squad. He is not up to the task in big teams like Liverpool. As a matter of fact, I wouldn,t let him play for stoke city…What do you think?
I think you’re full of it.
The youngest player ever to win the Bola de Ouro, a full brazil international, and he’s being played out of position.
He plays the Liverpool way, keep it short, pass and move.
He had better stats last year (opta) than Xabi, Gerrard or Masch, for tackling and pass completion percentage, and he’s only 22.
He’s beefed up, has come to terms with the pace of the EPL and will shine within 2 years.
When he does, all the know nothings who get their opinions from the tabloids and some crappy football manager game will be eating humble pie.
Lets face it Alonso and Masch are gone. They like every other modern footballer have no loyalty to us. the only loyalty they have is to their bank balances. Someone tell me this. When your team has had one of its best seasons in 20 years and are poised to win the title and possibly european cup with just a few quality additions to the team, why would you ever consider leaving?
As much as we love Liverpool and we idolise the club and everything it has stood for over this past 117 years, the fact is these players don’t care. Liverpool is not the greatest thing in the world to them like it is to us. It doesn’t mean everything to them to pull on the red shirt, becuase if it did, they would surely move heaven and earth to stay, especially Masch who has won approximately nothing since joining us. To be fair to Ronaldo he could at least partly justify his move to madrid by the fact that he had won every domestic honour worth winning at Utd. What excuses will these two give. Get ’em out before they totally disrupt our season before it’s even started.
we cant allow alonso to leave and the same applies to mascherano, but if these 2 players cannot come out and commit themselves to liverpool football club then i would sell them to the highest possible bidders, after all liverpool football club is bigger than any player, this is probably the biggest season that we have faced in many a year and id rather have alonso and mascherano on board and with one or two quality signings we can definately win the league, so rafa and thae board get your act together and do everything you can to keep our best players
Ben’s right, Alonso is worth at least £85mill if Ibrahimovic is worth £80mill. It would bring a lot of money in if Alonso was sold but things arent that severe at Anfield are they? Rafa has to convince him to stay.
Will be very upsetting for our squad and supporters to lose such a class player as Xabi,
I personally c,ant see anyone better in his position to even match his
vision,strength,passing and shot(from any part of the pitch).
Its sad when it all seems to be in the hands of the agents and these teams
with that much money they do not know what to do with it.
I hope he stays,he may well end with a few medals this season.
never forget 96 Y W N W A RED KEN FOR EVER !!!!!
Alonso is one of the best players in Liverpool, but in Anfield he has no opportunity to play with big stars like Kaka and Ronaldo.
You mean like Torres and Gerrard???
Or the captain of Argentina???
Frankly that’s the biggest load of cobblers I’ve heard in a long time.
The only reason he would go to Madrid is for MONEY.
Not to mention the fact he would be betraying his basque roots
We don’t need them!! we already have very good players, just need a little of luck like ManU…
And don’t forget that we have the best player in the world… S. Gerrard!!
Don’t leave bro… no matter what. You are one of the reds eleven soldiers on the battle field. If Madrid spent big money on players, let them do it. I still believe we will beat them on every occasions next season. We already handed the history.
I think its better not to sell Alonso. But if he insists on going, we deserves more than 35m. Like ben suggests before, Rafa must convince Alonso to stay.
YWNA
Reading between the lines it seems that Alonso wants to move on so we should let hime go to Madrid where he’ll surely be a benchwarmer who’ll be looking for another club next season.
Real Madrid do sooner or later sign the one they’re after so it seems a matter of time before Alonso moves on.Neither do i want anyone with a long face distracting team spirit.About £30 million would allow us to find an able replacement so we should not settle for anything less,as for the Spaniard in the long run it will be his loss.
I think Alonso is in a great form and Liverpool needs him the most for next season, but if a good offer is on the table while we need money, then why not? We have Mascherano and Lucas left.
I would hate to lose him. If he insists on going, we shouldn’t accept anything less than £35m. If Ibrahimovic is rated at £80m, for god’s sake, then Alonso is worth twice that. But staying in the realms of normality (kind of), he is a £40m player by today’s money.
Rafa must convince Alonso to stay – Whatever it takes. He’s one of the best players in the squad.
sell arbeloa, dossena, leto, itandge, pennant is off on a free, voronin, hobbs, he gone already, that a re coup of close to 21 mill. hamilll has signed for notts forest too, so all these players out have a better affect on the wage bill plus lets us get the deadwood out and creates new money. if we have to sell alonso, then we hold out for at the worst 30 mill pounds sterling, if we have to sell alonso then with the cash from alonso and other player sales the cash we would have would be around;
£61 plus the 10 mill we have to left. thats £71 mill
silva 24 mill
maxi rodreguiez 14 mill
ashley young 20 mill
grosso 13 mill
We need to keep Alonso. He was probably our best player last season.