Reds: No Real deal done for Xabi
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Chelsea and Manchester City go back for Liverpool's Xabi Alonso as Real Madrid stall on £35m bid
Real deal: City and Chelsea wait in the wings as Madrid stall on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso
Chelsea and Manchester City are in the hunt again for Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, whose proposed move to Real Madrid has stalled.
The Barclays Premier League pair have been back in touch with Alonso's agent, having first made contact with him a month ago.
Alonso spoke of his wish to move to the Bernabeu before joining up with the Liverpool squad in Austria on Sunday.
The Spain midfielder watched his club's defeat by Rapid Vienna before flying to the Far East for the games against Thailand on Wednesday and Singapore on Sunday.
Real are still the player's most likely destination but they are not ready to meet the £35m asking price.
Jamie Redknapp: Why Liverpool's Steven Gerrard misses quarterback Xabi Alonso
Too similar: Lucas and Mascherano
Jamie Redknapp examines the problems caused for Liverpool when manager Rafa Benitez agreed to sell their midfield pass master...
You only need to look at Steven Gerrard’s body language. Liverpool's players are not happy about the absence of their quarterback.
They used to call them playmakers when I was trying to be like the old-fashioned No 10, the player who excelled with the ball and ran the game at his pace. France had Michel Platini, Holland had Johan Cruyff, England had Glenn Hoddle.
Xabi Alonso is a deep-lying modern-day version who plays in the pocket and would pass the ball forwards, rarely sideways. He is a player capable of shifting the play, changing the point of attack. If Gerrard or Fernando Torres gambled on a run, they knew the ball would soon arrive.
Xabi has two great feet. When I played against him, you didn’t know which way he would go, left or right, and the game comes easily to him. Alonso had an appreciation of the weight of a pass; either a 50-yard ‘Hollywood delivery’ inside a full back... or a 10-yard straight ping in to feet... or into space to run on to. Anyone can hit safety-first balls but it was his key passes that made him stand out. Now he will be producing those passes for Real Madrid.
Javier Mascherano is a strong holding midfielder but lining up alongside Lucas the pair are too similar. Each may require two or three touches when Alonso needed one pass. This is stating the obvious but they lacked creativity at Tottenham. Their passing wasn’t crisp and, consequently, Gerrard didn’t get enough of the ball at the point of their midfield three.
Compare his performance at Spurs to that of Cesc Fabregas at Everton, where he dominated the game. This is not how Liverpool are going to win games.
Teams will sit in deep and demand they create an opening. Stoke are at Anfield tomorrow and they are disciplined and organised. It may be that Gerrard has to drop back into a deeper role, with Dirk Kuyt restored to the front line.
Alberto Aquilani, their £20million signing from Roma, may well be a very good purchase. We’ll see. What I know is that he’s out for six weeks and, by then, Liverpool may well have a lot of ground to recover in the title race.
Why did they sell Alonso? The manager fell out of love with him and the damage was done to their relationship last season. Rafa Benitez thought Gareth Barry was a better player and was prepared to sell Alonso for £18m. Having failed to sign Barry from Aston Villa, he overlooked Alonso for his first line-up of the season.
Instead, against Sunderland he picked Damien Plessis, who went on to make only two further appearances all season. Real Madrid had few such doubts.
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Real reiterate Alonso interest
Bernabeu boss continues to track £35m-rated Liverpool star
Real Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini has once again sounded his interest in Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.
The Spain international has been at the centre of a long-running transfer saga as the Primera Liga giants attempt to prise him away from Anfield.
Alonso
is flattered by Real's interest, but Liverpool are determined to keep hold of one of their key assets as boss Rafa Benitez reportedly refuses to budge from a £35million asking price.Pellegrini
maintains that he rates the former Real Sociedad star, but he
acknowledges he must respect the fact that the 27-year-old remains a
Liverpool player.He told Sky Sports News: "All we know is that he is a very good player. We don't know what is happening with him.
"He is now a player with Liverpool, so we will see what will happen in the future.
"He is a very good player. But I cannot speak about players who are not at Real Madrid now."
skysports.
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if gonna sell alonso to some other english club, then pls do increase the price
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Reds: No Real deal done for Xabi
Liverpool have dismissed claims they have agreed a fee with Real Madrid for Xabi Alonso and denied he is set to leave the club's Far East tour.
Speculation in recent days has suggested Alonso's move to Real is as good as done but those fears were allayed when the 28-year-old trained with his team-mates at Singapore's national stadium on Thursday.
The club insist Alonso did not figure in Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Thailand in Bangkok purely because of an ankle injury and Rafa Benitez was calm over the rumours.
He Benitez said: "Alonso is here and he will enjoy the weather and the fans and the journalists.
"He is ready and can play."
A Liverpool spokesman added: "Xabi is with us in Singapore, and will train with the rest of the squad. He was injured ahead of the Thailand game, people can say what they like about that.
"And there has been no deal agreed with anyone for his transfer to anyone."
Alonso has made his desire to leave clear, and had hoped not to have to fly to Vienna on Sunday to meet up with the Liverpool squad ahead of the flight to the Far East.
But Alonso did make the trip, and sources at Liverpool expect him to face Singapore on Sunday before the squad fly back to the UK the following day.
Madrid sporting director Miguel Pardeza backed up Liverpool's claim that nothing is imminent regarding Alonso, but he still hopes the Spanish giants will be able to sign the midfielder - and Alvaro Arbeloa.
With regards Alonso, Pardeza said: "It's at a standstill. From day one, Liverpool have asked for more than Madrid are ready to pay and it's very difficult to understand. But I've not lost hope that things can be resolved."
Pardeza, who confirmed Madrid have been looking for an alternative to Alonso but with little success, also admitted a lack of progress in their chase of defender Arbeloa.
"With Arbeloa there was an option which, at the moment, has come to nothing. Liverpool haven't had much intention of letting him go, even though he has one year left on his contract, and we are still in this situation," Pardeza told Spanish newspaper Publico.
"There is more than a month of the transfer market left and this could change. I'm not going to deny that we'd like to have Arbeloa."
Meanwhile Benitez has also moved to dismiss speculation that Javier Mascherano also wants out of Anfield.
His agent, Walter Tamer, was quoted on Wednesday as saying the Argentine midfielder was tired of life in England, and favoured a move to Barcelona.
However, Benitez said: "In the press these days there are too many websites, too many newspapers, radio, television. You have to have stories every day so sometimes you repeat something from 15 days ago.
"It's much the same situation, he knows our ideas. He's been working very hard and he's a very important player for us."
teamtalk.
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this is a good news uh