For Xabi Alonso
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no kidding?
From 2011
I think that in football so many things change,' said Alonso.
'I have my red passion and if circumstances arrived then why not?
'At the moment I don't know what is going to happen, but it could be a possibility. Never say never.'
Beating Barcelona to honours next year is at the top of Alonso's agenda but he conceded that he misses life at Liverpool.
He said: 'I miss lots of things. I miss the lads, I miss the atmosphere at Melwood - it was a great place to work, and the scenario of Anfield is unbeatable.
'The special nights I have been privileged enough to live, those will be in my memory forever and they are difficult to compare anywhere in the world.
'Stevie (Gerrard) and Carra (Jamie Carragher) are very good friends. They were good team-mates because from the first day I felt I got on with them well.
'The importance they had in the changing room, it was very important for me to have a good relationship with them.
'Being from Liverpool, knowing how things were at that moment and winning the Champions League in the first year made the relationship stronger. That is why they are still very good friends.
I think that in football so many things change,' said Alonso.
'I have my red passion and if circumstances arrived then why not?
'At the moment I don't know what is going to happen, but it could be a possibility. Never say never.'
Beating Barcelona to honours next year is at the top of Alonso's agenda but he conceded that he misses life at Liverpool.
He said: 'I miss lots of things. I miss the lads, I miss the atmosphere at Melwood - it was a great place to work, and the scenario of Anfield is unbeatable.
'The special nights I have been privileged enough to live, those will be in my memory forever and they are difficult to compare anywhere in the world.
'Stevie (Gerrard) and Carra (Jamie Carragher) are very good friends. They were good team-mates because from the first day I felt I got on with them well.
'The importance they had in the changing room, it was very important for me to have a good relationship with them.
'Being from Liverpool, knowing how things were at that moment and winning the Champions League in the first year made the relationship stronger. That is why they are still very good friends.
Xabi Alonso (Liverpool and England)… I wish
By Huw Turbervill Sport Last updated: June 29th, 2012
Xabi Alonso had a rare off-night against Portugal in a tournament in which he has shone. He missed the first penalty in the shoot-out and although he still had the best pass completion rate in the Spain side, he still was not at his best. Expect him to bounce back in the final.
Alonso rarely had two bad games in a row at Liverpool, and he should be able to summon up some last vestiges of energy to face Italy for his 102nd Spain cap. Liverpool fans will continue to watch and wish he was still at Anfield; English fans will wish he was one of theirs (and if they don’t, they need their brains tested).
Among the arguments used to explain why England underwhelmed again at these Euro finals (come on, you know they did, despite the lesson in dousing expectation by Roy Hodgson) is that too many foreigners are in the Premier League.
But any restriction would discourage players like Alonso, 30, from gracing the English domestic stage and showing our players the way.
The news that England achieved an average of 36 per cent possession in their four games, and that Joe Hart was their most successful passer, will come as no surprise to Alonso.
He gives a great interview. On one particularly enlightening occasion, he expressed dismay that a young Liverpool colleague said ‘tackling’ was his strength. “Tackling is not really a quality, it’s more something you are forced to resort to when you don’t have the ball,” Alonso said. “I can’t get into my head that footballing development would educate tackling as a quality.”
In another interview he picked Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes as the type of quality players who could fit into Spain’s fluid, graceful midfield.
Oh how we missed those two at these finals. Jordan Henderson has time on his side, but his Premier League form had not justified his inclusion after the injuries to Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry. Owen Hargreaves would also probably have been at these finals if injury had not decimated the second half of his career.
Most Liverpool fans pray that Alonso will come good on his hint that he would like to come back – if not this summer, maybe next. As much as they hope Brendan Rodgers is successful, he must also be a candidate to manage Liverpool one day.
Alonso understands that you cannot just have a team of silky passers in the Premier League. He appreciates typically English footballers like Steven Gerrard – “a great player [who] inspires and leads” in that tremendous trident that the much-maligned Rafael Benitez assembled in midfield: Javier Mascherano (the spoiler), Alonso (the pivot), Gerrard (the inspirer).
Liverpool missed Alonso in that first season (2004-05) when he broke his ankle, but he returned to help them triumph in Istanbul.
He made up for a slight lack of pace with his passing vision and skill, either with short simple lay-offs or rakish, cross-field balls that instantly turned defence into attack. And, contrary to what he said about tackling, he was strong in this department himself.
Famous strikes from his own half came against Luton Town (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGkKwwwt0k0
) and Newcastle United (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab7tUi7wQi4
) in the 2005-06 campaign, and then he helped Liverpool to the Champions League final again in 2007.
Benitez was a terrific manager for Liverpool but he made mistakes, and there was no greater folly than falling out with Alonso and trying to replace him with Barry after his form had dipped a little in the 2007-08 campaign.
Alonso was back at his best for his fifth and final campaign at Anfield, but the damage had been done to his relationship with Benitez, and he joined Real Madrid. Benitez’s next biggest mistake was replacing him with the over-priced and unsuited Alberto Aquilani.
Now Real have Alonso as their deep-lying playmaker, and he also forms half of a fitting fulcrum in the national side with Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, allowing the Nou Camp thrusters, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, further forward. Oh Xabi, if you only were still at Liverpool. Oh Xabi, if only you were English…
By Huw Turbervill Sport Last updated: June 29th, 2012
Xabi Alonso had a rare off-night against Portugal in a tournament in which he has shone. He missed the first penalty in the shoot-out and although he still had the best pass completion rate in the Spain side, he still was not at his best. Expect him to bounce back in the final.
Alonso rarely had two bad games in a row at Liverpool, and he should be able to summon up some last vestiges of energy to face Italy for his 102nd Spain cap. Liverpool fans will continue to watch and wish he was still at Anfield; English fans will wish he was one of theirs (and if they don’t, they need their brains tested).
Among the arguments used to explain why England underwhelmed again at these Euro finals (come on, you know they did, despite the lesson in dousing expectation by Roy Hodgson) is that too many foreigners are in the Premier League.
But any restriction would discourage players like Alonso, 30, from gracing the English domestic stage and showing our players the way.
The news that England achieved an average of 36 per cent possession in their four games, and that Joe Hart was their most successful passer, will come as no surprise to Alonso.
He gives a great interview. On one particularly enlightening occasion, he expressed dismay that a young Liverpool colleague said ‘tackling’ was his strength. “Tackling is not really a quality, it’s more something you are forced to resort to when you don’t have the ball,” Alonso said. “I can’t get into my head that footballing development would educate tackling as a quality.”
In another interview he picked Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes as the type of quality players who could fit into Spain’s fluid, graceful midfield.
Oh how we missed those two at these finals. Jordan Henderson has time on his side, but his Premier League form had not justified his inclusion after the injuries to Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry. Owen Hargreaves would also probably have been at these finals if injury had not decimated the second half of his career.
Most Liverpool fans pray that Alonso will come good on his hint that he would like to come back – if not this summer, maybe next. As much as they hope Brendan Rodgers is successful, he must also be a candidate to manage Liverpool one day.
Alonso understands that you cannot just have a team of silky passers in the Premier League. He appreciates typically English footballers like Steven Gerrard – “a great player [who] inspires and leads” in that tremendous trident that the much-maligned Rafael Benitez assembled in midfield: Javier Mascherano (the spoiler), Alonso (the pivot), Gerrard (the inspirer).
Liverpool missed Alonso in that first season (2004-05) when he broke his ankle, but he returned to help them triumph in Istanbul.
He made up for a slight lack of pace with his passing vision and skill, either with short simple lay-offs or rakish, cross-field balls that instantly turned defence into attack. And, contrary to what he said about tackling, he was strong in this department himself.
Famous strikes from his own half came against Luton Town (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGkKwwwt0k0
) and Newcastle United (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab7tUi7wQi4
) in the 2005-06 campaign, and then he helped Liverpool to the Champions League final again in 2007.
Benitez was a terrific manager for Liverpool but he made mistakes, and there was no greater folly than falling out with Alonso and trying to replace him with Barry after his form had dipped a little in the 2007-08 campaign.
Alonso was back at his best for his fifth and final campaign at Anfield, but the damage had been done to his relationship with Benitez, and he joined Real Madrid. Benitez’s next biggest mistake was replacing him with the over-priced and unsuited Alberto Aquilani.
Now Real have Alonso as their deep-lying playmaker, and he also forms half of a fitting fulcrum in the national side with Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, allowing the Nou Camp thrusters, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, further forward. Oh Xabi, if you only were still at Liverpool. Oh Xabi, if only you were English…
"Tackling is not really a quality, it's more something you are forced to resort to when you don't have the ball," i love that - says it all.
I strongly disagree. It's a necessary part of the game and there can be real skill involved in doing it right.
Henrik Larsson said something similar.
How often did Sami have to lunge at people?
That makes my point rather than maradona's. Sami didn't often dive in, but he certainly tackled people. Players with his quality and intelligence can do it without imitating an earth remover (though Sami could do that too if he absolutely had to).
Indeed. Didn't he have the second highest completed tackle count in the Prem one season?
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