Liverpool legend: 'It breaks my heart' to see Xabi Alonso running the Spain midfield

[spanky]

never underestimate the stupidity of Real Madrid though

[The Birdman]

He wanted to leave and we got £30m cash for him.
****ing hell stop bleating on about it, even Man U had to sell Ronaldo because he wanted to leave.

[g.red]

[squaddie]

He wanted to leave and we got £30m cash for him.
****ing hell stop bleating on about it, even Man U had to sell Ronaldo because he wanted to leave.

As much as we miss him..... Your spot on.

Rafa made it known there'd be a possibility of using him to bolster funds for the transfer window (after a particularly mediocre season might i add), not necessarily to buy Barry. The offer's weren’t high enough so we kept hold.... That business. But I thought the fact he spat his dummy out and pulled his socks up that season to spite us knowing he was getting off once it ended..... Was pretty ****ty.

That said he's one of the best natural talented midfielder's in the world and unfortunately our team relied on him massively. Any team would miss Alonso…. But what’s done is done...... so rather than boring us with the same old ****. Man up and get the **** on with it.

[_92]

Just a phenomenal player. Watching him play here week in week out he was just incredible, his passing ability it out of this world and he controls the tempo of the game. Everything goes through the guy if you watch him closely. Nothing spectacular, just simple yet effective.

The bollocks of him having 2 "ordinary seasons" or that is pish. He was playing in an average team with SG the only real world class player. In the 08/09 season, Stevie an Nando especially thrived playing infront of him because the service was bang on. Last season that was clearly missing in our team as Thommo states. This is one mistake Rafa made in trying to offload him for Barry. His quality has always been there, and for me he was just as important as Gerrard and Torres. Gerrard's comments summed it up when he left. I'm tipping RM to win the CL next season (though i'll be supporting Rafa at Inter), but RM have a real chance if Jose can get the best out of likes of Kaka and Benzema, and Alonso will play a cruical role in how Jose will play.

[Icon]

In response to the title.....

He IS Spanish!

[Leyton388]

Sell Mash buy back Xabi!

Sorted!

[red n white]

Regardless of the circumstance why and how he left - when I watch him playing nowadays I can see that night in Istanbul before my eyes again and are proud he did wear a Liverpool shirt for a while.

[vlahka]

Thanks Rafa

[Molby]

Regardless, he knew a year before he left that he was looking at his last season, then left it late to hand in a transfer request giving us less time and options for a replacement. That's unacceptable.

**** him. He's not LFC any more, neither is Rafa, it's way past time to move on.

Exactly Rafa Justice - it's time to move on - he was a great player, but he's not LFC anymore.

All this wank fest about Alonso is stomach churning - it was HIS DECISION to go. Full Stop. He wanted out and got out - we should be looking forward and not back.

I was in the Kop for "Sami Day" aginst Spurs, which turned out to be his last game for us at Anfield - i remember looking at him as he was leaving the pitch - he fleetingly waved at the Kop as you would when you met somebody on the road that you vaguely knew....

He didn't really give a **** about us, let's be honest about it.

He wanted to go to La Liga - he's there now. Thanks for the efforts and memories Xabi, good luck.

[Helios Creed]

My take on it is that Xabi was brought to replace Stevie and be Rafa's midfield general and captain, which is why he used to talk to him on the pitch all the time. Rafa intended to get rid all the English prima donnas who had caused problems to Houllier towards the end, hence Spud's rapid exit, Owen's bags being chucked out the door, even when he was still dithering about going (also the half-hearted attempts to get him back when he left RM) and Rafa's covert attempts to get rid of Gerrard for the next two years, that he sensed and led to him almost walking out twice. He only stayed because Parry intervened and convinced him that Rafa really did want him to stay. Rafa had by this point either realised just how good a player he was or more importantly how important he was to the fans.

Fiiting them both into the team was always difficult and resulted in Stevie playing on the right and then behind the striker. Xabi ended up in a more restricted, defensive role and then when Masher arrived and was better at this, given the choice of having to sell one of them to raise transfer funds, Rafa decided to keep Masher and sell Xabi, who with Gerrard and Masher in the team, was expendable, also there was the alleged fall out when Xabi's wife was due to give birth. He aimed to get Barry in and make a profit - big mistake in my book. This fell through, but understandably Alonso was hurt by this and sought a move the following season resulting in us actually getting something like what he was worth. Imagine if we'd sold him for £14m or whatever he was due to go for..

Obviously this is complete bollocks - I've never even had anyone agree that Xabi was brought in to replace Gerrard let alone the rest of it, bit I'm sure I read that Rafa was tipped off by Houllier about who the troublemakers were and Rafa had a reputation for getiing rid of egos before he joined us so, from there, the whole thing makes sense to me.

[CJ]

i think rafas mistake was the not being happy when he wanted to be at the birth of his child.

after that i can see why we sold him. i think he wanted to go to spain anyway he talked about high taxes here etc.

we got good service out of him, as good as he was in his last season we managed without him. i think what we couldnt manage without was him and gerrard and torres. and arbeloa going made a big change to the way we played.

but he can ping that ball round like well apart from molby cant think of anyone.

though i was convinced he wouldnt go to Mardrid. I thought Basques didnt do that?

[badpiggy]

Totally agree about Rafa wanting rid of SG and possibly changing his mind for the reasons you mentioned as well. SG has always been a bigger problem than a solution for Rafa

[vlahka]

I would of happily gotten rid of gerrard and kept alonso if that was part of the fantasy future. Despite knowing he wasnt wanted and being used to get funds for Barry, not once did you ever see Alonso sulk on the field or give less then all his effort. Unlike our beloved captain who sulks through majority of games and even agreed to go to chelsea at one stage.

[EwarWoo]

we got good service out of him, as good as he was in his last season we managed without him.

There's a massive difference between a team on a high making do without the playmaker for a game or 2 and a team on a low having no-one to look to to create their chances.