Athletico Madrid to bid for Xabi?

[tomasjj]

FLMAO at the Alonso salesmen on here.
Keep Momo and sell Alonso??!? What are you on?

Xabi has been one of our best players so far this season.

He is one of the 5 players in our side I would not sell.
Reina, Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Xabi.

[AFII]

FLMAO at the Alonso salesmen on here.
Keep Momo and sell Alonso??!? What are you on?

Xabi has been one of our best players so far this season.

He is one of the 5 players in our side I would not sell.
Reina, Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Xabi.

This also shows that Rafa still have a long way to go to get an excellent starting XI

[SouthAfricaRed]

He means they have played 'nice' football. Which to be fair they have. Although nothing as dominating as we were against Blackburn

They didn't look too "Nice" Today

[Red_Polo]

They didn't look too "Nice" Today

Looked nice from where I was sitting

[Fiddy]

Exactly.

We'll NEVER EVER be a challenger for the title, with only one midfielder who can score goals.

Look at the likes of United and Chelsea, they have goals from midfield.
We dont. They challenge for the title. We dont.

..But they've also got the likes of Carrick/Makelele who contribute nothing in terms of goals...Stevie & Garcia will always get us goals, Gonzalez is a threat but obviously isnt quite there yet, and clearly we need a right winger who will give us that. So basically all we're really lacking compared to the Scums is goals from the wings

Let's sell Xabi though and get Cahill in eh

Every team has at least one midfielder in who does more donkey work and sits rather than sprinting around the box taking potshots all the time, and Xabi usually gets about 5 goals a season anyway. Not prolific but arguably his main roles in the team are in other areas than goalscoring

[Fiddy]

We didn't play sh!t football. We just didn't take our chances. The picture is not quite as bleak as you would like us to believe.

Precisely, the main thing we lack at the moment is cutting edge, and a true threat down the flanks

[lfcruleus]

Can I just point out that before this season everyone was harping on about Utd having **** all in midfield, Scholes and Giggs were past it, Fletcher and O Shea were ****e, Park and Ronaldo plenty to prove. Now we are miles behind them in midfield? They have only signed Carrick who wouldnt lace Xabi's boots in my opinion. Funny old game.
Xabi is being played in a more defensive role by the manager, especially when Momo isnt playing, thats why he doesnt get in the box more. In recent games he has been consistantly getting shots on goal from the edges. The onus should be on the wingers to get in the box more when the ball is the other side and Gerard to do so also.
In case you havent noticed we do play a lot more cautiously with a lot slower build up than Utd, this is why opposing teams have more time to defend and pick up players in the box. The only genuinely quick and offensive player we have is Bellamy. Rafa knows this and why he plays him every game at the moment.
For anyone to suggest we sell Xabi is insane, he is the best signing the club has made in years and will be for years to come. I bet Ferguson would swap Carrick for him put it that way.

[Kopite_Colin]

We needed class out wide and should have paid for it. Instead we got Pennant, and spent the rest on Bellamy. I'd have preferred us to buy Alves and bought another striker, and played Garcia as emergency striker if necessary. We need goals from up front and out wide. The fact we haven't (yet again) has shown us what we're still lacking.

[Craig_H]

..But they've also got the likes of Carrick/Makelele who contribute nothing in terms of goals...Stevie & Garcia will always get us goals, Gonzalez is a threat but obviously isnt quite there yet, and clearly we need a right winger who will give us that. So basically all we're really lacking compared to the Scums is goals from the wings

Let's sell Xabi though and get Cahill in eh

Every team has at least one midfielder in who does more donkey work and sits rather than sprinting around the box taking potshots all the time, and Xabi usually gets about 5 goals a season anyway. Not prolific but arguably his main roles in the team are in other areas than goalscoring

We have TWO midfielders who do the donkey work and both our CMs combined wont get 10 goals a season...

Add that to our wingers probably not even making 5 between them. That's a total of about 15.

Ronaldo alone has 12 Premiership goals so far.

[Spionkop69]

Not that much longer if we continue to play **** football in our away games.

Did you spend Xmas alone?

[Craig_H]

Can I just point out that before this season everyone was harping on about Utd having **** all in midfield, Scholes and Giggs were past it, Fletcher and O Shea were ****e, Park and Ronaldo plenty to prove. Now we are miles behind them in midfield? They have only signed Carrick who wouldnt lace Xabi's boots in my opinion. Funny old game.

How do you judge it? How they perform, surely? They're performing. Reputations mean nothing mate. They produce on the field.

Xabi is being played in a more defensive role by the manager, especially when Momo isnt playing, thats why he doesnt get in the box more. In recent games he has been consistantly getting shots on goal from the edges. The onus should be on the wingers to get in the box more when the ball is the other side and Gerard to do so also.

When Momo plays, Alonso still doesnt get into the box much.

In case you havent noticed we do play a lot more cautiously with a lot slower build up than Utd, this is why opposing teams have more time to defend and pick up players in the box. The only genuinely quick and offensive player we have is Bellamy. Rafa knows this and why he plays him every game at the moment.

That's part of the problem.

For anyone to suggest we sell Xabi is insane, he is the best signing the club has made in years and will be for years to come. I bet Ferguson would swap Carrick for him put it that way.

Maybe he would. With Alonso and Sissoko in CM, we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage from an attacking point of view. Because they offer very little going forward between them.

[willa1975]

I'd sell for double that.

Exactly. Didn't we pay 14 million for Alonso--I know the initial outlay was around 11 million, but didn't we fork over an additional payment after Xabi made a certain number of appearances for the club?

We'd be silly to only break even on him if we were to sell him. 22 million minimum if you ask me.

[ningnangnong]

350m minimum IMO.

[Guest]

Xabi has been playing very well of late. If he continues in that vein and progresses as he is expected to progress, then i can't see any point in selling him.

[El Jefecito]

They didn't look too "Nice" Today

You're right they still have a soft center. You rough them up enough and they fold.