So, what of Aquilani?

[kop-al-74]

I'd rather have Aquilani instead of Poulsen and maybe even Lucas.

[Mattshark]

I'd rather have Aquilani instead of Poulsen and maybe even Lucas.

Different position to those two though.

[Craig_H]

I wont pretend there isnt a part of me curious as to how a central midfield of Gerrard & Miereles, with Aquilani in behind Torres, would work.

[Mattshark]

I wont pretend there isnt a part of me curious as to how a central midfield of Gerrard & Miereles, with Aquilani in behind Torres, would work.

It would probably be quite exciting to watch (well maybe not under the current regime). But I would fear for our defence (especially under our current regime).

[Craig_H]

There'd be no need to worry about the defence. Not with Konchesky there.

[Angryred]

We got Joe Cole...shut the door on your way out Aqua...thanks!

[Arn]

I'd rather have Aquilani instead of Poulsen and maybe even Lucas.

Different position to those two though.

Different position to Poulsen but not to Lucas. Lucas was a box to box midfielder before he moved to us and play his best games when he is more free to make attacking runs.

Aquilani played as a central midfielder at Roma.

Aquilani is a better attacking player than Xabi but not as complete as him. Xabi is a world class tackler and ball winner for example so it depends what the team needs. If you have a player like Masch for example then it's better to have an Aquilani than Xabi as his partner.

[Mostar]

From what I've seen of Aquilani, he has the talent to boss games. He hasn't showed it consistently enough because of his stop-start season last term but he should have been given at least 6 months to show his worth, then loaned out in January if he hadn't proved anything by then.
Obviously, it seems there are people at the club who took some decisions in spite of the manager. I don't think Hodgson had anything to do with his transfer. He was seen as one player associated with what was bad with the previous regime and he was shafted out pronto. Same could be said of Insua.

It would have been difficult for him to make a first team with Stevie and Joe being ahead of him in a packing order but loaning him to Juve was imo one of the worst thing we could have done it. He is the one of the few that could bring us some creativity, trickery and good passing we have in short supply and we basically gave up on him without genuinely giving him a chance to prove his talent.

[Zapater]

I know it's early days, but on the evidence that Aquilani showed from his handful of games he played in the hole, vs what Cole has shown in his handful of games this season I can quite confidently say I'd rather have Aquilani as the luxury player. If a non-British player, especially an Italian with a bit of a reputation for being a pussy like Aquilani put in some of the shifts and had some of the moments Cole has had in his first few games people would be writing him off already.

That being said, I'm not writing off Cole as I'm sure he'll be decent for us, just making the comparison. When I look at how much we're lacking the 2 midfield positions it just makes me think it's even more of an insane decision to let Aquilani go.

[Big Dave]

I liked Aquilani and think we should have kept him in the squad, though saying that, I think that Meireles is more suited to the Premiership and will be more effective for us. Why he's been wasted on the right wing though I have no idea!

[Dalglish]

MOTM for Juve last weekend and was applauded off the pitch.

At least we're "protecting his value"

[spud_gun]

Don't think he played last night, did he?

Injured?

[Zapater]

Don't think he played last night, did he?

Injured?

Nope, just being rested. Anyway, until he was 100% fit I'd hate to chuck him in against Vieira, Toure and Barry he'd get the **** kicked out of him.

I really like Aquilani, so I would hope next season he comes back and we have a proper manager to use his qualities properly, although if he has a good season and we cash in on him it could be the best for all parties. Although, the one thing we do know is that if the owners are the same whomever is in charge won't be seeing a penny of that to fund new signings.

[Galb]

He wasnt exactly a rip-roaring success.

But there's absolutely no way he was the flop he was painted as either. Yes he was injured a lot, and yes that definitely makes the value of the signing hghly questionable. When the press write off a player, it takes a lot to turn that view around because they dont watch that many games themselves.

But when he had a consistent run, I thought he looked like a really useful player. He had some excellent performances for us in the second half of last season - Portsmouth, Athletico, etc - and some of the movement and link-up play from our front four when he was playing was great. I was genuinely hopeful about him for this season.

Signing him may not have been a great idea, but once he was here and starting to play well, getting rid of him was crazy.

[Gaz]

I'd much rather watch a CM partnership of Aquilani and Miereles compared to Lucas and Poulsen