s@int wrote:Emerald Red wrote:utYour missing the point though Emerald.
Rafa wanted to sell Alonso .....not for 3 times his price, but for between £14 and £16million when he was after Barry.
Rafa then replaced Alonso with an injured player that has played 45mins since he joined us.
Alonso had 2 good years out of 5 with us (I personally don't think he was that good in his first season either)
We EVENTUALLY got a good price for him, but before his last excellent season for us we couldn't get £15million for him.
My opinion of Alonso hasn't changed, I thought he was a good player who had two poor seasons on the trot before Rafa first tried to sell him.
I find it strange that people are trying to defend Rafa by talking about Barry rather than the injured player that Rafa paid almost double the price we could have got Barry for.
Circumstances change from summer-to-summer regarding budget, though. The summer we sold Xabi, he'd to sell to buy, plus the Yanks probably had the pressure on to get a sufficient recoup on the player to balance the books. Who knows. I'm not debating the fact Bentez f*cked up by buying an injured player to replace him with, but at the time Xabi's handing in his transfere was a bit of a suprirse and probably something that Rafa wasn't even expecting. I recall him trying to get him to stay, but when he couldn't what was he to do? Who were the alternatives? He had to act quick, and in his defense it would have been a serious reshuffling of his overall plans for the team this season. It was a gamble, but it's still not excusing the fact that we should have at least been OK, or at least functioning as a team without Alonso. I still believe the state of the side isn't just down to his exit. It's part of it no doubt. I just find it irritating that people are now using this as an excuse to excuse the poor form of the team this season. When Xabi was out for long spells, we coped well enough. Anyway, back to the topic at hand about our captain.
It was hardly a SURPRISE when Alonso handed in a transfer request, Alonso had been saying since the end of the season that he wanted to go.
But I agree that losing Alonso is not the main reason for our current problems. Rafa must take the majority of the blame for that.
He brought in a load of new backroom staff, gave the players a very poor pre-season campaign, and then stuck with a system that WOULDN'T WORK with the players now at his disposal for far too long.
Selling Gerrard would be the final folly if Rafa was foolish enough to do it, which I don't think he is.
We are talking about a player that has scored in League cup finals, a UEFA cup final, an FA cup final and a CL final.
A player that also brought us back from the dead in two of those finals and on other occasions too numerous to count.
This season he has sacrificed his form and fitness for the good of the team by playing on when he is injured, and people would consider selling him because one or two of the lesser lights MIGHT POSSIBLY be overawed by his talent, or maybe its a last desperate ploy to defect some of the blame from where it should lie.......with the manager.[/quote]
Great post mate