Xabi Alonso - Fee Agreed (Official)

[Mattshark]

i blame rafa for not having adequate man management skills. if ur not his favourite he doesn't care bout u. he is like every teacher i ever had at school.

Really because lots of other players think he has great man management skills. Maybe you just pay to much attention to crap media reports.

[Guest]

He was injured frequently in those 2 apparent average seasons and him being average is still better than 99% of other midfielders in the premiership. We have lost THE BEST central midfielder in world football - you can't put a price on a player with that quality. And it's obvious that he didn't feel wanted by Rafa. Look back to Rafa's quotes just before we were due to play Inter Milan when Xabi's wife was due to give birth.

Means nothing. Rafa is the consummate professional, he probably works 24/hrs a day, even in his sleep so that maybe reflects his obsessive nature about all things football. You can't take snippets from comments and expect to make a rationalized analysis on how Rafa manages his players.

[Craig_H]

Really because lots of other players think he has great man management skills. Maybe you just pay to much attention to crap media reports.

Carra and Gerrard both refer to Rafa's personality and man management skills in their books. Not personal and fairly cold, is the impression they give.

Some players wouldnt let it bother them, obviously. Some might.

[the rev leeroy brown]

Really because lots of other players think he has great man management skills. Maybe you just pay to much attention to crap media reports.

i'm basically basing my opinion on the fact rafa constantly tells the media that reina is the best keeper in the premiership ( and as we all know reina is ), he mentions dirk kyut being a definate starter so long as he is fit as he is an important player for us ( and he is ), he tells the world stevie g is world class and mr liverpool ( again correct ) and constantly last season used the arguement that torres was the best striker in the league but had missed chunks of it and that had cost us. never once did i read a report or statement from rafa praising xabi. not once did he come out, even when asked, and said how important he was and how great he is. not untill xabi had put in his transfer request by them it was too late. if it was me i would have told the world xabi was a great player and that we would not sell him. i love rafa as our manager but he pisses me off no extent at times.

[Guest]

Carra and Gerrard both refer to Rafa's personality and man management skills in their books. Not personal and fairly cold, is the impression they give.

Some players wouldnt let it bother them, obviously. Some might.

So what? At least it's fair.

[Craig_H]

So what? At least it's fair.

What do you mean 'so what' ? The point was made about Rafa's man management skills and it was said that most players apparently think his man management skills are good - and my post was in reply to that.

You'd literally agree with and defend anything rafa ever did, regardless of what it was. So there's really no point in engaging with you about anything to do with him.

[saj]

Means nothing. Rafa is the consummate professional, he probably works 24/hrs a day, even in his sleep so that maybe reflects his obsessive nature about all things football. You can't take snippets from comments and expect to make a rationalized analysis on how Rafa manages his players.

There is multiple different sources which have all said the same thing, that Xabi was unhappy with the fact that Rafa was willing to sell him - can all these sources be wrong? The consummate professional in all this affair was Xabi for not saying a single thing when he left. He could've sulked when he was almost forced to leave for Juventus but instead he had his best ever season.

[Guest]

What do you mean 'so what' ? The point was made about Rafa's man management skills and it was said that most players apparently think his man management skills are good - and my post was in reply to that.

You'd literally agree with and defend anything rafa ever did, regardless of what it was. So there's really no point in engaging with you about anything to do with him.

No it would rather be boring agreeing with you all the time.

And don't start again with your whining Craig. What's your own assessment on Rafa's 'man management skills'. I personally think that by being distant or cold, he's not putting himself into a trap of favouritism with certain players and he tries to be fair and assess them on their skills rather than anything else.

Not sure I'd like someone 'cold' in a manager myself but I could live with that as long as I get a fair crack of the whip. In that case I think Rafa's doing very well.

[Vermilion]

There is multiple different sources which have all said the same thing, that Xabi was unhappy with the fact that Rafa was willing to sell him - can all these sources be wrong? The consummate professional in all this affair was Xabi for not saying a single thing when he left. He could've sulked when he was almost forced to leave for Juventus but instead he had his best ever season.

Don't think sulking was ever an option, he was always imo going to attempt to prove Rafa wrong for trying to sell him.

And i don't believe he'd have gone THIS season had Madrid not come in for him.

[Guest]

There is multiple different sources which have all said the same thing, that Xabi was unhappy with the fact that Rafa was willing to sell him - can all these sources be wrong? The consummate professional in all this affair was Xabi for not saying a single thing when he left. He could've sulked when he was almost forced to leave for Juventus but instead he had his best ever season.

Xabi was average at best and nowhere near 'the best midfielder in world football' before the start of last season. If we were a club with a lot of money to burn, maybe he wouldn't have tried to cash in on one of our best assets. We should start to go away from personal feelings towards Xabi, and leave our affinities aside. It's the team that counts, not an individual.

At the end of the day if we win the league, it would have been a good decision.

[saj]

Don't think sulking was ever an option, he was always imo going to attempt to prove Rafa wrong for trying to sell him.

And i don't believe he'd have gone THIS season had Madrid not come in for him.

That's stating the obvious

[Craig_H]

No it would rather be boring agreeing with you all the time.

And don't start again with your whining Craig. What's your own assessment on Rafa's 'man management skills'. I personally think that by being distant or cold, he's not putting himself into a trap of favouritism with certain players and he tries to be fair and assess them on their skills rather than anything else.

Not sure I'd like someone 'cold' in a manager myself but I could live with that as long as I get a fair crack of the whip. In that case I think Rafa's doing very well.

I think that a manager needs to have a balance of the two sides personally.

Different players and different situations will call for different reactions, and by limiting one's self to only ever being 'cold' or, dare i say it, 'robotic' towards his players, it makes it very hard to get the best possible result out of a situation where a player needs the 'arm round the shoulder' approach to get the best out of him.

Like it or not, some players needs that kind of approach to perform best and it's all very well saying 'well we dont need players like that', but it leaves you open to the possibility of missing out on some potentially excellent players.

And dont give me all that 'whining' ****, i'm posting my view which is different to yours, but that doesnt make it 'whining' at all.

You're the epitome of a nodding dog when it comes to Rafa, and whether i say it or not, anyone with half an eye and the abilty to read can see it.

[saj]

Xabi was average at best and nowhere near 'the best midfielder in world football' before the start of last season. If we were a club with a lot of money to burn, maybe he wouldn't have tried to cash in on one of our best assets. We should start to go away from personal feelings towards Xabi, and leave our affinities aside. It's the team that counts, not an individual.

At the end of the day if we win the league, it would have been a good decision.

And if we don't win the league, will it be a bad decision? Will the Alonso sale be a major contributing factor to us not winning the league?

I always said that if we kept Alonso, the league would be ours to lose. Now without Alonso, I feel we have only a slight chance of winning the league. That's just my opinion.

[Guest]

You're the epitome of a nodding dog when it comes to Rafa, and whether i say it or not, anyone with half an eye and the abilty to read can see it.

You see that's not funny.

I'd rather stop arguing with you.

[Guest]

And if we don't win the league, will it be a bad decision? Will the Alonso sale be a major contributing factor to us not winning the league?

I always said that if we kept Alonso, the league would be ours to lose. Now without Alonso, I feel we have only a slight chance of winning the league. That's just my opinion.

I personally think that we're weaker for selling Alonso, only in the short term because Lucas is not the finished article yet, nor is Aquilani who is injured and will have to adapt to the demands of the league.

But stats have also shown that our most important players are Torres and Gerrard and Alonso wasn't as crucial as some would make us believe. I'm not sure about that IMO, as I think Alonso allowed us to control games and leave us 'less exposed' defensively for it.

But we couldn't avoid losing him, so we'll have to try and develop our game without him. It will be hard yes, but we've still got our big two and Man Utd seem to be weaker for losing Ronaldo and Tevez. So hope everything evens out during the course of the season.