Re: Alonso on Bentiez...
[quote author=Anita link=topic=35598.msg937411#msg937411 date=1251897914]
[quote author=StevieM link=topic=35598.msg937401#msg937401 date=1251897330]
[quote author=Anita link=topic=35598.msg937380#msg937380 date=1251896706]
BLAH BLAH BLAH
Any manager who isn't going to allow a member of their team to witness the birth of their own child is wrong, IMO. That was not a justifiable or defendable action.
I'm not even going to humour the other bit.
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THere's a player at a top AFL club (Western Bulldogs I think) who was in the papers here the other day because his wife is going in to have the baby induced this week so that he is available and focused to play in the finals series.
Not condoning it, just stating it.
On another point, let's be honest here... why did Alonso's form improve so markedly last season?
Was it because he was going to be flogged off to whatever team met Liverpool's valuation?
Ultimattely, all Alonso's good form last season brought.... was his ability to pick the team he wanted to go to.
Ironic that we were going to replace him with Gareth Barry...
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StevieM, my point is, I can't understand how people can separate what happened last summer with Alonso's eventual departure. How can people say one had nothing to do with the other?
I take your point about his form improving, and am not doubting it. But that's not really the point in question. People seem to think Alonso should have just forgotten about what happened last summer; I don't think that's a realistic thing to ask of a person.
Furthermore, we don't know about the conversations that went on (or didn't, as the case maybe) behind closed doors. Rafa himself mentioned that Alonso's agent spoke to him in March to try to establish what Alonso's position at the club was. So even at that stage in the season, Alonso wasn't sure where he stood, perhaps suggesting Rafa hadn't moved to reassure him of his place at the club after his form had turned. Rafa's claims of he was 'surprised' by this are the kind of things that infuriate me and make me doubt how straight forward he's been about the affair. How it could surprise him when he's just tried to sell him, naturally a player is going to be uncertain about his position.
Rafa grossly mishandled the Alonso situation, not only last summer, but he had a season to recover it. To convince Alonso to stay, I don't think he did, that bit is just my opinion, and people don't have to agree with it. But to say that Alonso leaving this summer had nothing to do with what happened last summer is ludicrous, because that is fact.
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It would be ludicrous if anybody was saying that, but no-one is. The argument here is between those, like you, who think Alonso was justified in getting the hump over it and those, like me, who don't.
