Oh the man is a midfield maestro,
and all the passes he makes are delightful,
everyone wants to know
Alonso, Alonso, Alonso…
And so they sang, echoed by 55,000 voices, every single one screaming the passmaster’s name… Three times, Alonso himself had to turn around and waved to the crowd modestly, in appreciation of the massive support lavished upon him even before he began warming up.
It was 74 minutes into the game and the crowd roared at the sight of a certain number 14, illuminated on the fourth official’s board. “Substitution for Liverpool. Replacing number 5 Daniel Agger… number 14, Xabi Alonso!”, slowly but surely, fans all around the stadium rose to their feet, “XA-BI A-LON-SO!” was the cry. Thunderous rounds of applause soon followed as banners were lifted pleading with Rafa’s midfield maestro to stay.
I believe that Rafa has done pretty well in fending off Real Madrid’s advances thus far. Nevertheless, the ball is now in Alonso’s court and Rafa has reportedly made it clear that if Xabi wants to leave, he would need to hand in a transfer request. The good news is that hitherto, there is no news (besides Real Madrid being interested, which is just old news, really). However, I am still hanging on to the hope that Alonso will ultimately realize in his heart that no club is like Liverpool and that no fans, are like Liverpool fans. Xabi por favor, quédese con nosotros!
