A Liverpool Blog is Born, Xabi Out, Alberto In, Thank God No Barry...
Friday, 07 August 09, 02:10 AM · Comments (10)
The date was July the 1st, and I awoke with a great deal of optimism about the Grand opening of the summer transfer market. I was determined that my life for the next few weeks
would revolve around football, with the internet becoming like a second home to me. However if I had known then what I know now, I probably
would have moved to the moon, or at the very least a middle eastern country where even thinking the word 'football' was a sin so forbidden, that the punishment was an eternity of having to
watch John Barnes Soccer Night repeats.
It took little to no time for Manchester City to make their first signing, which saw Gareth Barry go against his morals in search for greener pastures, or more green as the case was. It seemed that City where on a mission to buy every striker in the EPL with Santa Cruz next to join them - Cue big spending Real Madrid. Determined not to be outdone by Lil Ole City, the Galactico's soon made Kaka the worlds most expensive player with a jaw dropping £56M, a title that the Brazilian would hold onto for all of a few days before the world saw Ronaldo sign for £80M.
Liverpool on the other hand? We went and splashed most of our budget on none other than, Glen bloody Johnson. Ok, so Glen Johnson is a good player, and yes Kuyt is going to benefit a lot more from having him there, but he's not worth £18M.
The days after Johnson's signing proved to be a provoking time indeed. Rumours started circulating that Alonso wanted to leave the club. The internet was in raptures. Looting began, riots started at every corner and inevitably a few houses where burnt down, one of which I think Sean Dundee had occupied at the time. Of course, none of this had actually happened, but I imagine that if the internet was a real place, that's what we would have seen. Almost every discussion was Alonso based, and it was always about the same three things: Is he going to leave,Is he going to leave and of course... Is he going to leave?! If the only things certain in life were Death, Taxes and yet more Alonso articles, then I would gladly take the first 2 every time.
Come the end of July, Alonso handed in a transfer request and there was no doubt in anybody's mind that he was leaving. The only thing that was left to do was agree a price, something which sounds easy in principle, but left the 2 clubs locked in a death grip. Rafa wanted straight up cash, Real wanted to offer cash + players. I for one would have taken the cash + player deal, at least we would have had a distraction from all the players being linked away. When did we become the slowest moving club in the transfer market? Rafa was wasting all of his time with this one deal. Real managed to buy Benzema during this period, Man City had practically bought a new team, and United, well you can always count on good old United to throw some kind of salt in the wounds, this time in the form of Michael Owen.
Eventually a fee had been agreed and after completing his medical, Alonso made his move to Madrid.
Its very ironic when you think about it. This was a replica of the Gareth Barry saga that had engulfed every newspaper the season before, and if it had not been for that saga, this one would never have happened. I must say though, I'm very impressed at how Xabi conducted himself throughout the weeks. He carried himself with a great respect for the club, and never once told the media that he wanted to leave. He is a player that will be greatly missed and his services will not go forgotten, especially not those that saw him help the club to a 5th Champions League trophy. I wish Xabi all the best and hope that he walks on with hope in his heart...
I'm Dom by the way, and this is my Blog!
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Posted by Neverwalkingalone
| Comments (10)
10 Comments · Add yours
Welcome and congrats on your first blog entry. Whatever happened to Sean Dundee?
Hey! great 1st blog entry! lookin forwrd to many more!
star69 Wrote: | 10.17UTC | Aug 7, 2009
He went and played for Stuttgart. Did pretty well. But went down hill from there. Now he plays for an unheard of South African club now.
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raginirulz Wrote: | 10.54UTC | Aug 7, 2009
Thanks.
Look forward to writing many more.
hey man. nice job. sickened xabis gone
well done you managed to slag one of our players off in your 1st draft. Congrats.
you mean johnson? he isnt worth 18 million
Good stuff. I do like a debate.
Josh. I wasn't slagging Johnson off, I was just pointing out that he isnt worth £18M.
Dirk is going to score so many more goals now that he has Johnson behind him, but if your seriously going to argue the fact that Johnson is worth what we paid, then perhaps we need to take a closer look at one thing:
Johnson was bought for 18M and Arbeloa was sold for 3.5M. Can you see my arguement now? No way can you tell me that Glen is over 4 times the player Alvaro is.
the main reason johnson cost 18 mill was because popmy owed us 7 mill from the crouch move and 5 mill is probably because he is english with the 6 plus 5 rule possiblie coming in.
Yep... English men are worth a lot these days! :D But you're right - 18 is too much.
Congrats on the blog!
Finally found the site Goodafternoon Dom
Welcome and congrats on your first blog entry. Whatever happened to Sean Dundee?
Hey! great 1st blog entry! lookin forwrd to many more!
star69 Wrote: | 10.17UTC | Aug 7, 2009
He went and played for Stuttgart. Did pretty well. But went down hill from there. Now he plays for an unheard of South African club now.
--
raginirulz Wrote: | 10.54UTC | Aug 7, 2009
Thanks.
Look forward to writing many more.
hey man. nice job. sickened xabis gone
well done you managed to slag one of our players off in your 1st draft. Congrats.
you mean johnson? he isnt worth 18 million
Good stuff. I do like a debate.
Josh. I wasn't slagging Johnson off, I was just pointing out that he isnt worth £18M.
Dirk is going to score so many more goals now that he has Johnson behind him, but if your seriously going to argue the fact that Johnson is worth what we paid, then perhaps we need to take a closer look at one thing:
Johnson was bought for 18M and Arbeloa was sold for 3.5M. Can you see my arguement now? No way can you tell me that Glen is over 4 times the player Alvaro is.
the main reason johnson cost 18 mill was because popmy owed us 7 mill from the crouch move and 5 mill is probably because he is english with the 6 plus 5 rule possiblie coming in.
Yep... English men are worth a lot these days! :D But you're right - 18 is too much.
Congrats on the blog!
Finally found the site Goodafternoon Dom