Liverpool sold Xabi Alonso to make room for starlet…

Liverpool sold Xabi Alonso to make room for starlet who would play just eight times

The manner of Xabi Alonso’s Liverpool exit is one that still rankles supporters even now, 14 years on from his £30m move to Real Madrid.

Having come agonisingly close to winning the Premier League title in 2008/09, the Spaniard called time on his Reds career to return to his homeland with the La Liga giants. However, Rafa Benitez had infamously tried to sell him 12 months earlier as he tried to sign Gareth Barry.

Liverpool fans were outraged and such efforts, and would repeatedly chant the midfielder’s name during a pre-season friendly with Lazio on the eve of the season. When interested clubs failed to meet the Reds’ asking price for Alonso, Kopites were delighted.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2009, when the Spaniard did move on after the season of his life at Anfield, they pointed the finger of blame squarely at Benitez’s willingness to sell him the previous year.

However, the former Reds manager insists he didn’t force Alonso out of the club. Speaking to the We Are Liverpool Podcast, Benitez would explain how the presence of other central midfielders, including youngster Damien Plessis who played just as eight times for the club, contributed to his reasoning for looking to cash in on his compatriot.

“We were improving, but the problem was that we didn’t have the money,” he said. “People say ‘Rafa made a mistake because he sold Alonso’, but everything was very clear.

“We had Gerrard coming back, because he couldn’t play as a second striker all the time, we had Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, and we thought Plessis could maybe play sometimes.

“We had players that could play in this position, but we didn’t have a left full-back or a left winger. (Gareth) Barry could be the option, and with the money of Alonso we could bring in a striker or a second striker.

“Xabi could go. I knew what was going on behind the scenes, and I said ‘he has to go’. We have to get as much as we can, and then with the money, try to bring in two or three players to fix two or three positions.”

He continued: “I don’t like to say too many things that I know because they are part of the job, but when I told Xabi he could go, he didn’t go.

“And after, he could go, and I said ‘no, you have to stay’, and I made him play an important game. And after, I knew he had an agreement, I had to try and keep him as much as we could, to get the price as high as we could.”

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