A genuine transfer coup on the cards for Liverpool?
Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso’s reluctance to sign a new contract at the club has set reports in motion about a possible return to Liverpool in the summer, but what are the chances of such a transfer coup coming to fruition for a player who enjoyed five successful seasons on Merseyside?
The 31-year-old Spain international currently has a contract at Madrid which runs through until the end of next season, but with manager Jose Mourinho’s future up in the air, he remains reluctant to commit himself until things become clearer about what path the club intend to take in the future. With the side currently 13 points behind rivals Barcelona in the league, in what has represented a pitiful defence of the title they won in such style last season, not only is a potential change in manager on the cards, but a freshening up in the squad in what promises to be a period of great upheaval if they fail to triumph in the Champions League this term.
In what looks certain to be a quote that will be revisited more and more the closer we draw to the end of the season and the summer, Alonso told the BBC in February: “With Brendan, Liverpool are building a project. They need to be patient. We all want to see Liverpool fighting for the Champions League places. I still follow the Premier League and I still feel very attached to Liverpool and I follow them. I consider myself a Liverpool fan.”
The midfielder’s Anfield exit in the summer of 2009 wasn’t brought about by the need to test himself on a bigger stage, after all, Liverpool had just seriously challenged for the Premier League title losing out to Manchester United by just four points and a couple of Federico Macheda shinned last-minute winners. The club were competing in the Champions League each and every year and in Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard, the club had perhaps the best midfield trio in European football outside of Catalonia.
The departure was all but sealed, as everyone knows, by Rafa Benitez’s clumsy pursuit of Aston Villa man Gareth Barry – a move which doesn’t look any more sane with the passing of time. It should be noted, though, that of Alonso’s five years at Anfield, only his first and last touched the heady heights we have come to remember him for; one when trying to impress in a new league and the other when trying to force a move through elsewhere in what has been a convenient re-writing of history to suit the man-love agenda. He has been hugely missed and by just how much has only become easier to quanifty the more time passes, but he’s definitely stepped up a level in terms of consistency while in Spain, certainly more so than he ever managed while at Liverpool.
Alonso moved to Liverpool because of Benitez, but after offering him around anyone that would have him, only Arsenal’s reluctance to offer anything above £15m (has Arsene Wenger made a bigger mistake in the market in the past five years?) stopped him from moving elsewhere in the top flight. Equally so, Alonso wanted to move because of Benitez, rather than a need for a new challenge and a desire to move back home. His one-time mentor had fallen out with him over his desire to be by his wife’s side at the birth of their first child on the eve of a crucial Champions League game and it never recovered and Alonso’s form fluctuated during the 2007-8 campaign before he was made available for transfer, with injuries taking their toll on his form.
When that is put into context, it makes the idea that Alonso fancies a return to Anfield all the more understandable and a reported £80k-a-week contract has been put on the table, while the fee ranges from £12m to £8.5m depending on where you look. What is clear, though, is that Alonso’s departure signalled the end of Liverpool as a top four force, with his ability to control and dominate possession in the middle of the park being sorely missed ever since.
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The narrowly avoided financial disaster of the final days of the Hicks and Gillett ownership saw the side fail to capitalise on a second-placed league finish in 2009 and they refused to invest for another push that summer which saw them subsequently finish seventh the following campaign, sack Benitez, appoint the patently out-of-his depth Roy Hodgson and being forced into selling Mascherano to Barcelona. It’s a state of affairs the club have still struggled to fully recover from and they hovered between eighth and sixth in the league ever since.
Despite his deal at Madrid being worth £130k-per-week, Alonso has spoken of his surprise when he watches top flight matches and how quick the pace and flow of the game is; with time hardly on his side, he could be equally reluctant to dive straight back into a league that he has been absent from for four seasons, even taking into account the significant wage drop. However, with Joe Allen struggling so much this season, Brendan Rodgers will be in the market for an experienced midfielder in the summer, even if he hadn’t bet on setting the bar so high.
Considering the midfield is such a central area of Rodgers possession-based philosophy, it’s remarkable what a mess he’s made of it this season, from playing out of form players (Allen), to unfathomably dropping those in form at times (Jordan Henderson) to just simply playing them out of position altogether (Nuri Sahin). The way he’s chopped and changed points to a manager struggling to pick his best trio or even knowing what they are, while failing to consistently deliver on his message that the side are capable of controlling a game for prolonged spells and Alonso could certainly help in that regard, even if the tempo of the league could ensure a bumpy first few months back.
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As with many sub-plots that have developed over the past few months, plenty rests on the future of Mourinho and whether he chooses to extend his stay in the Spanish capital beyond the end of this season. If he leaves, Alonso may be seriously tempted to look elsewhere too and Liverpool would understandably provide a comfortable and familiar environment to see out the final days of a fantastic career and what better way to try and convince Luis Suarez to stay for another year at the same time, by signing a truly world-class midfield operator in what would represent a real signal of intent and ambition.
Harking back to the initial question and whether the deal is likely, it’s too early to tell at this stage, but he fits the style, the system and already loves the club which ensures they remain right at the front of the queue. If I were a betting man, I’d put it on Alonso staying at Real Madrid until his contract expires, turning down the two-year extension and then perhaps returning to a young and vibrant Real Sociedad side, the place where he started his playing career. His Basque roots will always ensure a stronger emotional pull than his Scouse credentials, but the ball remains firmly in his court and he’s never been a player who has terms dictated to him, rather a principled individual in control of his own career, something which could potentially be a determining factor that could count in Liverpool’s favour ahead of a proposed romantic and sensational comeback to the top flight. It’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.
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