The guy just wasn't good enough, fair enough. At least he gave 100% when he was on the pitch though, he never shirked a challenge.
I suppose you could call him a flop because he didn't really do the business. You can say that he had injuries and that it was his first season in England etc, but you could say the same for Alonso and he was superb last season when fit.
But you can't really expect the guy to call himself a 'flop' can you? From his point of view he was injured a lot and didn't play that many games in a side that struggled as a team for much of the league campaign. He will probably go back to Spain a better player with his experience of playing in a foreign league, so from his point of view it probably wasn't a wasted season.