Torres: selling Alonso & Arbeloa ruined our season

[Bender]

Fernando Torres claims Liverpool’s campaign was doomed even before it began,
blaming the departure of key players and the failure to recruit quality replacements for their disappointing season.
Spelling out his frustration at the loss of Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa and Sami Hyypia,
Torres insisted the club had become ‘messed up’ after the trio left last summer.

Torres said: ‘After a good season last year, the team needed certain reinforcements and to keep the squad together, but circumstances dictated we had to sell and
everything got messed up.

‘The sale of Arbeloa, Hyypia and Alonso was an important loss. Alvaro was a player who did a vital job for us, always played to a high level and his flexibility was a huge bonus.

‘Sami may not have played every week but he was 10 out of 10 on and off the pitch and players like Xabi are very rare.
‘He was the team’s engine and you know that when you change an engine it takes time to work again.’

He added: ‘We were so far off the top of the table so quickly. That killed us psychologically and has stopped us changing the situation.’

From the dailymail

[Shanks]

No mention of Rafa's dodgy subs, Aquilani's injury, Riera??

Also, as MrsB has put in the news section.
It has been a poor season, it didn't ruin it..

[Roboklopp]

Was certainly my worries at the start of the season and you could see the belief drain out of the players early doors when we went off the pace. You'd hope they were mentally tougher though. If anything, last season shouldve taught them that with late comebacks etc.

[TheElephantMan]

Hyypia was probably the biggest loss of the trio mentioned, would have helped to sort out our defensive problems earlier in the season.

[reds123]

keeping in mind that rafa had an option to sign either robben or sneider with the sale of alonso, torres is keeping his mouth shut here.

sneider & robben oh my god rafa you are a great tactician esp. in european football but regarding the transfer market you are very poor.

why not bring sneider? because he doesn't know how to defend?

[Roboklopp]

Hyypia was probably the biggest loss of the trio mentioned, would have helped to sort out our defensive problems earlier in the season.

I love Sami mate- he was an absolute legend, but Xabi was still in his prime whereas Sami was backup by that stage. Xabi was a massive, massive loss as many of us predicted.

[Dalglish]

keeping in mind that rafa had an option to sign either robben or sneider with the sale of alonso, torres is keeping his mouth shut here.

sneider & robben oh my god rafa you are a great tactician esp. in european football but regarding the transfer market you are very poor.

why not bring sneider? because he doesn't know how to defend?

Did we have an actual option as part of the Alonso sale?

[JohnDoe]

I love Sami mate- he was an absolute legend, but Xabi was still in his prime whereas Sami was backup by that stage. Xabi was a massive, massive loss as many of us predicted.

Hyypia would have played every week this season.

[Roboklopp]

Hyypia would have played every week this season.

Possibly to be fair, but I still think lsing the fulcrum of Alonso has had a big detrimental effect on our defensive unit as well as our attacking one. Hence individual defensive players are looking less than they did last year for that reason too.

Alonso was vital to the whole balance of our side. Losing him (along with the players above) isnt the only reason for our decline, but it is a very large part of it.

[Tee]

Spot on Nando.

[The Birdman]

keeping in mind that rafa had an option to sign either robben or sneider with the sale of alonso, torres is keeping his mouth shut here.

sneider & robben oh my god rafa you are a great tactician esp. in european football but regarding the transfer market you are very poor.

why not bring sneider? because he doesn't know how to defend?

Sorry but complete bollocks - Rafa got £30m for Alonso cash up front and didn't see a penny of it to spend.
It's obvious to even Stevie bloody Wonder that Rafa was told to generate a certain amount of money through player sales to go towards bringing down the debt.

[TheElephantMan]

Sorry but complete bollocks - Rafa got £30m for Alonso cash up front and didn't see a penny of it to spend.
It's obvious to even Stevie bloody Wonder that Rafa was told to generate a certain amount of money through player sales to go towards bringing down the debt.

Isn't it amazing how easily wild speculation becomes fact if repeated often enough?!

[Vermilion]

Sorry but complete bollocks - Rafa got £30m for Alonso cash up front and didn't see a penny of it to spend.
It's obvious to even Stevie bloody Wonder that Rafa was told to generate a certain amount of money through player sales to go towards bringing down the debt.

Isn't it amazing how easily wild speculation becomes fact if repeated often enough?!

[Roboklopp]

Isn't it amazing how easily wild speculation becomes fact if repeated often enough?!

Aye. What's that quote about a lie if repeated often enough becoming truth.

[EwarWoo]

Still amazes me people were so blasse about the effects of losing Alonso.

One of the few occasions I was right, but I wish it was one of the many occasions I'd been wrong.

Sorry but complete bollocks - Rafa got £30m for Alonso cash up front and didn't see a penny of it to spend.

I guess Aquilani was free and hasn't turned out to be (short term at least) a total waste of 20m and not even slightly up to replacing Alonso as intended.