Xabi Alonso interview

[Charly]

Exactly what opportunity did Rafa have to recover from Aquilani exactly? In fact, how much of a chance was Aquilani given!

I am not having a go at Aquilani. I think he showed glimpses of a great player.

Rafa did not recover because the team became so awful without Alonso. It just didnt work. SO he left.

But he was the wrong kind of player tactically. Plus we bought him while injured, which was plain stupid. And the fact he wanted to be loaned back this season showed he wasnt happy here anyway.

Id have Alonso back in an instant. I think he got the best out of Gerrard, and Suarez would have a field day.

[Arn]

I am not having a go at Aquilani. I think he showed glimpses of a great player.

Rafa did not recover because the team became so awful without Alonso. It just didnt work. SO he left.

But he was the wrong kind of player tactically. Plus we bought him while injured, which was plain stupid. And the fact he wanted to be loaned back this season showed he wasnt happy here anyway.

Id have Alonso back in an instant. I think he got the best out of Gerrard, and Suarez would have a field day.

So how many choices did Rafa have? He had to sign a player from a club that owned us money. That means very few options. He couldn't afford to replace Xabi in any other way.

All the Xabi money was spent on paying the £30m+ interest.

I think that you will find out that Aquilani was our best possible option out there, injured or not injured.

Then you also have to consider what allegedly happened and that some of the most trustworthy journalists out there have mentioned. That our medical staff didn't tell Rafa how long time it would take before Aquilani could play again. The same medical staff that allegedly lied to Rafa about Torres for example. How badly injured he was.

As been mentioned so many times. We had a civil war going on. Purslow allegedly lied time after time to make Rafa look as bad as possible. Rafa have even showed Brian Reade clear evidence of that. 100% proof that Purslow lied to make him look as bad as possible.

Who could we have signed instead of Aquilani? You can only do business with clubs that owned us money.

[Daniel 7]

So how many choices did Rafa have? He had to sign a player from a club that owned us money. That means very few options. He couldn't afford to replace Xabi in any other way.

All the Xabi money was spent on paying the £30m+ interest.

I think that you will find out that Aquilani was our best possible option out there, injured or not injured.

Then you also have to consider what allegedly happened and that some of the most trustworthy journalists out there have mentioned. That our medical staff didn't tell Rafa how long time it would take before Aquilani could play again. The same medical staff that allegedly lied to Rafa about Torres for example. How badly injured he was.

As been mentioned so many times. We had a civil war going on. Purslow allegedly lied time after time to make Rafa look as bad as possible. Rafa have even showed Brian Reade clear evidence of that. 100% proof that Purslow lied to make him look as bad as possible.

Who could we have signed instead of Aquilani? You can only do business with clubs that owned us money.

Good post that.

[Craig_H]

How can someone who's perma-injured be our best option?

[Daniel 7]

The options were pretty much Aquilani or nothing.

[Chris]

He had to sign a player from a club that owned us money.

He didnt have to. Riise cost Roma a pittance anyway so its not like they owed us a stackload of cash.

[Kenneth]

Absolute rafa adoring bull****.

[Kenneth]

He didnt have to. Riise cost Roma a pittance anyway so its not like they owed us a stackload of cash.

[Arn]

My take on it.

Xabi was stunned when Rafa tried to sell him. He didn't think he could be replaced. He took his place in the team for granted and had because of that not played as great as he could do.

A big ****ing wake up call for Mr Alonso. Time to start to deliver. I think that he also was stunned when he found out that neither Real Madrid of Barcelona wanted him. Another ****ing big wake up call for Mr Alonso.

He started to deliver because of the ****ing big wake up calls and next summer Real Madrid wanted him.

I doubt that Xabi would have delivered in the same way after we tried to sell him if we didn't tried to do it.

That we tried to sell him was key to make him play better. Sometimes a player need a wake up call like that. A reminder of that you must start to deliver or you will be sold.

[Daniel 7]

We were only dealing with clubs we had credit notes with. Its not bull****.

[Kenneth]

We were only dealing with clubs we had credit notes with. Its not bull****.

Of course it's bull****.

[Daniel 7]

Who else was signed that summer?

[Kenneth]

My take on it.

Xabi was stunned when Rafa tried to sell him. He didn't think he could be replaced. He took his place in the team for granted and had because of that not played as great as he could do.

A big ****ing wake up call for Mr Alonso. Time to start to deliver. I think that he also was stunned when he found out that neither Real Madrid of Barcelona wanted him. Another ****ing big wake up call for Mr Alonso.

He started to deliver because of the ****ing big wake up calls and next summer Real Madrid wanted him.

I doubt that Xabi would have delivered in the same way after we tried to sell him if we didn't tried to do it.

That we tried to sell him was key to make him play better. Sometimes a player need a wake up call like that. A reminder of that you must start to deliver or you will be sold.

That's right Arn. It was just an inspired piece of motivation by Rafa.

[Chris]

We were only dealing with clubs we had credit notes with. Its not bull****.

Its complete and utter nonsense. Roma owed us about 3m, we signed Aquilani for 17m. This theory is ****. It might apply with Johnson, we might have been worried about our financial situation and Portsmouths so quickly sorted a deal to get rid of that Crouch money they owed us. But for the Aquilani deal its garbage.

So if Rafa wanted to go and buy say Steven Defour for 12m he'd have been told no but was then allowed to go and give Roma 14m + 3m credit for Aquilani? It doesnt make any sense.

[Arn]

He didnt have to. Riise cost Roma a pittance anyway so its not like they owed us a stackload of cash.

They still owned us money and we didn't had any money to spend on a replacement.

If someone tried to find how we paid for Aquilani, the first instalment, then they would most probably find out that the first instalment more or less matched what Roma owned us.

We had no money. Even a player that would cost £2m would have been to expensive.

How many clubs would would agree to sell us a player and we pay them nothing in the first instalment?

Roma couldn't pay us the Riise money because they themselves didn't had any money. The only way we could get that money back was to make a deal with them involving a player. In this case Aquilani.