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Thursday, July 30, 2009

After months of speculation, reports state that Xabi Alonso has finally taken a move to force the issue by handing in a formal transfer request. He will be leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid in the region of £30million.

Bear in mind that this upcoming post is pretty partial to the man himself but say if I were wrong and he's a real git- here's to hoping that his ignorance of the accumulative efforts and pleas from the fans will take its toll on him. Karma, baby! Now- let's speculate what could have driven him away from England, shall we?

The Barry Saga- Rafa has made his intentions to sign Gareth Barry (an overpriced English player) very clear. The midfield could use some strengthening and signing a leader of his capabilities seem like a wise decision at the time. The trouble is that as much as Barry has stated that he'd love to join Liverpool- we couldn't afford him. Martin O'Neill was being a real prick by jacking up the asking price for the midfielder. A whole saga brewed up when the Liverpool owners were not able to shell out the money to strengthen the team and Rafa found himself in an undesirable position where he has to sell to buy players. And clearly, Xabi Alonso is the best asset we've got. On the other side of Manchester, the Citizens were splashing cash all over the world like no one's business. Gareth Barry made a surprising move and pretty much ate all his talk of playing Champions League football by signing for Manchester City instead- at a much lower price compared to the one offered to Liverpool. Rafa lost and all hell broke loose. In his attempts to sign that wanker, he has pretty much whored out Xabi Alonso to the max (alright, im sure it was the media's fault) and kudos to Xabi, the man handled it very, very well. He is a professional player with professional ethics. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before he is forced to break the silence.

The Real Madrid Revolution 2.0- It's the Galacticos all over again. Florentino Perez has once again been elected as President of the club and the silly man has opted for shameless self-glamour for Real Madrid by splurging insane money for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Ribery. £80mil for Cristiano Ronaldo was a price that surpassed Zidane's world record asking price with a good £33mil. With that in mind- he is STILL trying to lower down the asking price of Xabi Alonso to less than £30million. The irony! The man has never kept secret of his desire to lure Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Apparently, unless you are a fierce rival of the club, many Spanish players dream of playing at the Bernabeu. With the crop of players being injected to the club- it is pretty much irresistible. Bear in mind too that the ability to come out with such big amounts of money and the support from the massive fanbase keeps the club in a financial position much more secured than any other in England.

Which leads us to the final factor, Family, Finance and well, Logic- He is Spanish (okay alright, Basque to be exact) after all. He's now started a family and just got married and all that jazz. Take all that into account and the fact that Real Madrid has relentlessly staked out for him- can you see why? Somewhere back in June, Alonso has spoken out against Gordon Brown's economic policies. It has taken its toll in English football and many players desire to escape the weak pound and incoming 50% tax rate. He first signed a five-year contract for Liverpool worth an estimated £65,000 a week. At the time there was €1.48 to the pound so he was on €96,200 per week but due to the weakness of the pound that has fallen to €76,700 a week. When the 50% tax rate comes in next April that will drop to €69,000 a week, so he could be losing €27,200 every week compared to what he was earning back in 2007. In other words, he could possibly be losing nearly £1.2mil per year.

Personally, I think Liverpool is lucky that Rafa has pledged his future to the club. Judging from his time in Valencia- one would expect that the American owners' lack of intelligence would have driven him away from the club first, followed by the once popular rumor of mass exodus of Spanish players. Arbeloa, who promised to stick by his side has JUST been sold to Real Madrid- now, Alonso follows. Alonso, the man who has embraced the English culture and encourage his compatriots to do the same ever since he first step foot in the country. He's leaving before the grumpy Mascherano? Huh?!

In conclusion, there's definitely no club bigger than Liverpool, but there's certainly a club out there which has a management board much more efficient than ours. He didn't deserve to go through the shite the club has put him through and in his defense, he has held up his own pretty well without lashing out at the club like certain low-class individuals (Agger for instance). He has never stated that Liverpool isn't good enough for him and he has served the club very well. His contributions have won us the Champions League and his brilliant form has landed us THISCLOSE to the dream title. Last but no least, his move to Real Madrid also brings us a good £20mil profit from when we first bought him off Real Sociedad.

Thank you and good luck, Xabi Alonso. :) It was nice watching you play throughout the years and definitely a pleasure seeing you in person last week.

You know what's funny? After a good year's worth of drama- we lost both Barry AND Alonso! When will the yanks EVER leave?!