My mind was made up: Alonso

[aws]

Hey Brendan - someone's nicked your log-in.

[The 5th Benitel]

No matter what happened last year he would have been getting off this summer and you cant really blame him. He gave us 4 good years and left with us getting 20m profit. The beard has gone, long live the goatee.

[mattyq]

Alonso had been going through the motions for two seasons prior to getting his arse kicked by Rafa, so he decided to sell him - I'd have made the same decision.

 

Alonso returns to form and decides to leave when the biggest club in his home country show an interest after buying two of the best players in the world to re-build and knowing his current manager was previously trying to sell him - If I was Spanish I'd have made the same decision.

 

What's all the fuss about?

 

Perfect precis, i reckon

[hold51]

Alonso had been going through the motions for two seasons prior to getting his arse kicked by Rafa, so he decided to sell him - I'd have made the same decision.

 

Alonso returns to form and decides to leave when the biggest club in his home country show an interest after buying two of the best players in the world to re-build and knowing his current manager was previously trying to sell him - If I was Spanish I'd have made the same decision.

 

What's all the fuss about?

 

+1 spot on assessment of reality, very strange thing to see on any Alonso thread, i think he doubled his value last season so good bit of business, shame the two muppets didnt give rafa the money though!

[Unrighteous]

I think it was just a case of knuckling down and getting on with it.

 

He put all distractions to one side and didn't ever moan or bleat about what had happened, and indeed still was happening at the time.

 

He left it until the end of the season, where this type of shit should be dealt with.

 

Class personified.

 

I can't argue with that one jot.

[DonaldDonaldson]

Didn't Alosnso say in May 2009 that he was looking forward to his sixth season at Liverpool? So he must have made his mind up (when he was pissed off), unmade it (when it looked like nobody was in for him), then made it up again (when Madrid entered the fray).

[hold51]

there wasnt a lot backing xabi during his two years of shit form and fitness though, he produces one good season out of last three, and we sell him a make a good profit had it been given to rafa to buy silva or villa most of you would be saying deal of the season!

 

He went to madrid to help maintain his bank balance and his international position, and to go home, and for that good luck to him, but always remember no single footballer has ever been bigger than this club or its managers!

 

As much as I dislike babel at least he has the courage to air his grievances while at the club unlike leaving and then slating the guy who made him a better player, just a bot classless xabi but that is the way Madrid work anyway!

[MLB]

No, no, it's a myth that he gave us two seasons of mediocrity before last season! A MYTH!!

[Moschops II]

No, no, it's a myth that he gave us two seasons of mediocrity before last season! A MYTH!!

 

Also, no-one ever wanted him dropped so that Gerrard could play in the middle with Mascherano. I remember it clearly not happening at all over and over again.

[goatboy59]

And no one on the Kop sang "You can stick Gareth Barry up your arse" and gave him standing ovations whenever he took a corner.

 

Tell yourselves whatever you want to tell yourselves.

 

Two years of shit......

 

:wallbutt::wallbutt:

[SpeedyG]

And no one on the Kop sang "You can stick Gareth Barry up your arse" and gave him standing ovations whenever he took a corner.

 

Tell yourselves whatever you want to tell yourselves.

 

Two years of shit......

 

:wallbutt::wallbutt:

 

Two years of self-inflicted shit. You are old enough, you should know by now there are three sides to every story. In this case, Xabi's, Benitez's and the Truth. As always the truth is the only one without a spokesperson, a PR team and that hasn't been through media training.

 

Why :wallbutt: did you really expect this to go any different than anything else?

[goatboy59]

Actually I meant two years of Alonso playing "shit".

 

But you're right in everything else.

[The 5th Benitel]

Alonso wasn't shit for two years but he certainly wasn't at the level he was at in his first and last season. He went cos he had an opportunity to play his last big contract in his own country, on more money and with some of the world's best players. I can understand him being pissed off with the whole Barry situation but my bird doesn't hold grudges that long and i honestly dont think he would still be that pissed off about it now considering how much he got played last season. He's just using it to stay in the good books of our fans, even though there's no need as only the most clueless supporter would begrudge him leaving.

[Dougie Do'ins]

Alonso wasn't shit for two years but he certainly wasn't at the level he was at in his first and last season. He went cos he had an opportunity to play his last big contract in his own country, on more money and with some of the world's best players. I can understand him being pissed off with the whole Barry situation but my bird doesn't hold grudges that long and i honestly dont think he would still be that pissed off about it now considering how much he got played last season. He's just using it to stay in the good books of our fans, even though there's no need as only the most clueless supporter would begrudge him leaving.

Go and tell "your bird" that you want to fuck her off as you've been flirting with someone else for the past six months. Also tell her that during this flirtation you've been busy looking for someone to take her (your bird) off your hands. Then about six months later tell "your bird" that the girl you had been planing a future with had fucked you off because she'd found someone with more money. Than ask "your bird" if she wouldn't mind forgetting the last twelve months and could things get back to the way they used to be.

 

Then lets see how long she holds a grudge. ;)

[bossy]

someone take this elastic band, see how far we can stretch it.......... or this dead horse, how long can we flog it for?

[SpeedyG]

Go and tell "your bird" that you want to fuck her off as you've been flirting with someone else for the past six months. Also tell her that during this flirtation you've been busy looking for someone to take her (your bird) off your hands. Then about six months later tell "your bird" that the girl you had been planing a future with had fucked you off because she'd found someone with more money. Than ask "your bird" if she wouldn't mind forgetting the last twelve months and could things get back to the way they used to be.

 

Then lets see how long she holds a grudge. ;)

 

Players get bought and sold all the time. If they under-perform they get sold more often. It's the nature of football, it's what happens when you are paid so much you become an entry on the balance sheet. Xabi was so pissed off and shocked at this attitude that he joined Madrid who were in the process of fucking off Robben, Huntelaar, Sneidjer etc etc for non-footballing reasons and in the case of Huntelaar even tried to flog him to Stuttgart without even consulting him!

 

Sorry Xabi, stick to footie, you're good at that.

[Dirk]

someone take this elastic band, see how far we can stretch it.......... or this dead horse, how long can we flog it for?

 

Perhaps we can construct a gigantic catapult from a load of elastic bands and catapult the dead horse into outer space.

[goatboy59]

Alonso wasn't shit for two years but he certainly wasn't at the level he was at in his first and last season. He went cos he had an opportunity to play his last big contract in his own country, on more money and with some of the world's best players. I can understand him being pissed off with the whole Barry situation but my bird doesn't hold grudges that long and i honestly dont think he would still be that pissed off about it now considering how much he got played last season. He's just using it to stay in the good books of our fans, even though there's no need as only the most clueless supporter would begrudge him leaving.

Well by that you seem to be ignoring 05/06, in which I thought he was very good indeed.

 

And your 'bird' analogy just got knocked out of the park!

 

He's not the only one using things to try and stay in the fans' good books, is he?

[Indian Red]

He`s gone. Move on people. Lets focus on the boys who are actually wearing a red shirt now

[The Dude Abides]

Sad that it had to come to him making his mind up about leaving before he started playing well again eh.

[Antynwa]

It's been done to death, but no one comes out of this smelling of roses. I was firmly behind Benitez in his decision back last year when he wanted Barry and was trying to get rid of Xabi.

 

Like it or not, Xabi perhaps through injury wasn't the player he was in 2004/05 to his credit he became one of our key performers once more, Benitez clearly wanted him to stay IMO. I reckon in the past 12 months he's been very childish, seemingly refusing to hold his hands up and go "Look I was wrong, Xabi's been ace".

 

I've said it once and I've said it again, it's no coincidence that half of the players that have left the club under Benitez's reign have been somewhat bitter to him, he just simply isn't a man manager, Keane and Crouch would probably vouch for that, afterall when they scored, they where dropped the next game. It felt to me as if it was 'I'm the manager and I'll do whatever I want'. Anyway thats a totally different issue.

 

I don't think even if Rafa's and Xabi's relationship wasn't strained, Xabi would have stayed if Madrid came calling, after-all he did say during the summer that money was a motivation for him.

 

Neither party comes out shining of gold, Rafa's management and refusal to acknowledge the fact that he got it wrong last summer and Alonso's greed contributed to all this.

[The 5th Benitel]

Go and tell "your bird" that you want to fuck her off as you've been flirting with someone else for the past six months. Also tell her that during this flirtation you've been busy looking for someone to take her (your bird) off your hands. Then about six months later tell "your bird" that the girl you had been planing a future with had fucked you off because she'd found someone with more money. Than ask "your bird" if she wouldn't mind forgetting the last twelve months and could things get back to the way they used to be.

 

Then lets see how long she holds a grudge. ;)

 

If i was in an open relationship with my bird i.e she knew she could get fucked off for someone else at any point, i'm sure she'd understand. Especially if i was giving a absolutely massive monthly allowance.

 

Basically, what happened was he was looking at another player after his performance levels had dropped. No matter what anyone says he wasn't as good in the middle two seasons as he was in the first and last. That's just a fact. He looked to sell him but, when he couldn't played him in almost every game and showed a lot of confidence in him when his form returned to what it had been. That's just football. People are talking about Alonso as if he's some delicate little girl who, because the boss was mean to him, held a year long grudge that he acted out even though his boss had evidently changed his mind about him.

 

Lie to yourselves all you want but he would have been on his way this summer no matter what and no one can blame him for that. This is probably his last really big contract and he couldn't have been given a better opportunity than the one he got with Real. I'm sure people will like to convince themselves that his love for the fans and the club would have kept him here but, in reality, he got the chance to play for one of the two big teams in his own country on more money and surrounded by some of the best players in the world.

 

I'm not saying Rafa didn't get it wrong last summer, cos he clearly did, i'm saying it gives Xabi an excuse for leaving us to make a move he clearly would have wanted to anyway. Deal with it and move on.

[coop]

TLW posse react to claims that Alonso had two 'off-form' seasons.

 

[philyhamann]

He was so off form that he had an almost unanimous backing at a pre-season friendly. Anything to justify Benitez, and defend his huge ego.

 

Terrible.

[Red House]

He was so off form that...

 

 

...that no other club decided to meet our price even tho he was made available for sale for about half the price he went this summer. There are two sides to a coin and all that stuff....