Well that didn’t take long, did it? Xabi Alonso was sold today for approximately 30 million pounds (which was a shocking gain, if you ask me… which is different than the “shocking” transfers we are usually involved in, like Owen for 8 mil), yet we have gone ahead and brought in Alberto Aquilani on the same day. All of this proves something very important to me… Rick Parry was a muppet. And for you non-English folk, that essentially means he is incompetent. To be blunt. The fee, which is believed to be about 18-20 mil, is perhaps a bit steep… but at least we are getting the players Rafa WANTS and not the ones the board want (Keane, for example).
The 25 year old attacking midfielder has been at Roma since he was a teenager, and was their #8. Last year was blighted by injury, which is slightly worrying, but his ability and talent is fantastic. Will he adapt to the pace and power of the Premiership? I think he will, much like Samir Nasri, Luka Modric, Luis Garcia, Christiano Ronaldo, and countless others who were doubted have. Being a technical and attack-minded player will be a huge benefit to us as we look to fill in the gap left behind by Alonso. Some say he is too much like Gerrard (in terms of spacing), but I don’t think this will be a problem, because Gerrard is more like a second striker now. With Keane, it was like we had three strikers, with Keane clogging the space in between Gerrard and Torres. With Aquilani, it will be more like having someone dovetailing behind Gerrard, which is much more suitable to our style. He won’t be as good defensively as Alonso, but then again that wasn’t Alonso’s strength, nor was it REALLY his contribution. As long as Aquilani does well with distribution and chips in with some good link-up play with Stevie and El Nino, I’ll be happy.
The potential of Aquilani is quite good… let’s just make sure he is fit and we give him time. I’m just thankful we didn’t snag Christen Poulsen instead. That would have been a massive “under-aim,” whereas signing Aquilani is a gamble, but at least a gamble that could have benefits at the end. Time will tell!!!
i enjoyed reading your post, and i agree i think he would fit in our system quite well! I also think he will inprove our squad aslong as he remains injury free.. He is more attacking than alonso and argubly a better shot with both feet and not only that he has these qualitys he will take less presure off the wings by moving forward unlike alonso and allow gerrard fill the gap behing torres unoticed. Xabi will be a big loss to us though and ive always said he would be irraplacable i think only beckham and gerrard would come close to how xabi plays but beckhams getting on and i personally think gerrard plays better in the hole behind torres so why change whats working? I hope aquilani will be a big hit at anfeild and could seriously help us win the title next year..