Xabi Alonso opens up on Liverpool departure: ‘I was disappointed’
By Tom Bogert
Xabi Alonso admitted in an interview that he was surprised and disappointed that Rafa Benitez pushed him out of Liverpool.
Xabi Alonso was sold from Liverpool to Real Madrid in 2009, that marks seven years ago. He’s still yet to be replaced.
The fan favorite could’ve been sold a year prior, according to the player himself. Rafa Benitez told Alonso that he’d be sold to fund other moves. The other move was bringing in Gareth Barry, which takes some of the nostalgia away from remembering the Benitez era.
When Benitez told him this, Alonso took it better than anyone could’ve imagined he would. He didn’t want to leave, but understood the business of the sport.
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“Rafa came to me and was very clear,” Alonso said, via a brilliant interview with The Guardian. “‘Xabi, we need the money to sign other players that I want’. In order to make that money, my name was the first on the list to be sold. I said, ‘OK, Rafa, no problem. I am a professional. I understand that’. There was interest from Juventus. There was interest from Arsenal. But the clubs could not agree terms. I was ready to leave, because the manager wanted me to leave. It did not happen, though. So the next year, the situation was different. I went to Rafa: ‘OK, a year ago you wanted me to leave and I accepted it. Now I want to leave . …’ In the end, there was an agreement but it was not easy because he wanted me to stay by that point.”
Alonso didn’t want to leave. Which makes it all the worse that he did. Usually Real Madrid come to get great players against the fans’ will, but this was the other way around. Liverpool nearly gave him away. It’s absolutely shocking.
“I was surprised,” said Alonso. “I was disappointed too, because I was very happy in Liverpool. I could walk down the street and people would beep their car horns and wave. None of this would matter to Rafa, of course, but why should it? He was the manager. He has his way of doing things.”
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The ever professional Alonso wouldn’t be baited into saying anything negative about his former manager.
“Yes, I can admit that my relationship with Rafa wasn’t as good as it had been in the first year,” Alonso said. “But I didn’t ask to leave because of that. I had been five years at Liverpool. I had the feeling it was the right thing to do.”
Alonso has just one regret: not winning the Premier League with Liverpool.
“Moving from Liverpool to Madrid was the most difficult step to make in terms of the decision,” said Alonso. “But I felt that I had new things to learn, new challenges to take. The only thing I regret is not winning the Premier League with Liverpool. I’ll never know how that feels and experience the reaction of the city, as I did after Istanbul. It hurts because I know the people want the league title more than anything.”
Xabi Alonso, honorary Scouser through and through.